The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To THE MARQUIS TOWNSHEND,1 15 JULY 1866

MS Carol Chapman. Text from facsimile in Albersheim’s catalogue, 2002.

GAD’S HILL PLACE,

HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.

Fifteenth July 1866

Dear Lord Townshend

I regret that I cannot have the pleasure of dining with Lady Townshend2 and yourself on the Seventeenth, as I have left town for the Season and have family visitors here. Your kind note reached me only today, in consequence of my having been on a ramble.3 Let me assure you that your remembrance was very welcome to me.

Faithfully Yours

 CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. John Villiers Stuart Townshend (1831-99), 5th Marquis Townshend since 1863; CD had known him since 1856, when as Viscount Raynham he had been Treasurer of the Royal Hospital for Incurables: see Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 106.
• 2. Lady Anne Elizabeth Clementina (1847-1925), daughter of James (Duff) 5th Earl of Fife; they married 17 Oct 65.
• 3. There are no letters between 11 and 15 July; CD may have been with his lover Ellen Ternan.