The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To JOSEPH ELLIS,1 [12] DECEMBER 1868

MS Quero et adamo, Switzerland. Address: Joseph Ellis Esquire | Monks| Balcombe | Sussex. PM Edinburgh 13 Dec 68.

Kennedy’s Hotel, Edinburgh2

Saturday Eleventh December3 | 1868

Dear Mr. Ellis

I am reading in Scotland, and your letter of the fifth has just now found me here. The book4 has not come with it, but I have no doubt it awaits me at home. I thank you for it beforehand, and beg to assure you that your second terrible “threat” cannot too soon be carried into execution.5

Joseph Ellis Esquire

Faithfully Yours

 CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. Joseph Ellis the younger (1815-91); manager of the Bedford Hotel, Brighton, 1845-65. Became leading spirit in the Brighton Literary Society and published two vols of poetry, 1869 and 1876. See N.C. Peyrouton, "When the Wine Merchant Wrote to Dickens: The Dickens-Ellis Correspondence", Dickensian 57 (1961): 105-11.
• 2. CD was in Scotland, 5-19 Dec, as part of the Farewell series of readings.
• 3. Saturday was 12 Dec.
• 4. Not identified; for his gift of a volume of poems (Meletae, 1869), see Pilgrim Letters 12, p. 363 & n.
• 5. Not identified; possibly the sending of Meletae.