The Charles Dickens Letters Project
To LORD JOHN RUSSELL,1 8 SEPTEMBER 1853
Replaces extract in Pilgrim Letters 7, p. 140.
Text from facsimile in Hughes Estate Sales online catalogue, Oct 2017.
Tavistock House
Thursday Eighth September 1853.
My Dear Lord
Coming home from Boulogne for a couple of days,2 before going into Italy until Christmas,3 I went down to Pembroke Lodge4 to thank Lady John5 for her kind note — though I had some fear that you might both have left.
The writer of the enclosed letter is my dearest and most valued friend,6 and I desired at the same time to place it in your hands myself, simply with that one remark. It being read to me when I arrived in town, I wished and offered to be the Bearer.
My Dear Lord
Yours always faithfully and obliged
CHARLES DICKENS
The | Lord John Russell.
- 1. Lord John Russell (1792-1878; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), leading Whig politician, principal architect of the Great Reform Act in 1832, and one of the main promoters of parliamentary reform; Prime Minister 1846-52, 1865-6. CD had known him at least since 1846, and dedicated A Tale of Two Cities to him.
- 2. CD was in Boulogne from 18 June to 10 Oct.
- 3. From Boulogne, on 10 Oct, CD travelled to Switzerland and Italy, in the company of Wilkie Collins and Augustus Egg.
- 4. The residence of the Russells, in Richmond Park.
- 5. Frances Anna Maria Russell (1815–98, née Elliot; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Russell’s second wife, married on 20 July 1841.
- 6. John Forster (1812–76; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), CD’s most intimate friend, advisor, authorised biographer, and co-executor. Russell had clearly extended some personal kindness towards Forster. CD wrote to thank Russell on 21 Sept: “Your note having been forwarded to me here, I cannot forbear thanking you with all my heart for your great kindness. Mr. Forster had previously sent me a copy of your letter to him, together with the expression of the high and lasting gratification he had in your handsome response. I know he feels it most sincerely” (Pilgrim Letters 7, p. 153).