The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To WILLIAM JOHN BELLEW ARCHER,1 2 SEPTEMBER 1841

Extracts in Jarndyce Catalogue June 2016. Replaces summary and extracts in Pilgrim Letters 7, p. 833.

MS 3rd person 1 p.; dated Broadstairs, Kent.

Address: Mr. Spence's, Finchley Common; redirected in another hand to Bedford Street, Bedford Row, London.

            Mr Charles Dickens presents his compliments to Mr Archer, and perfectly well remembers (now that it is recalled to his recollection) the paper2. . . and which he no longer has an opportunity of publishing.3 It may be pleasant to Mr Archer to know that it returns quite fresh to Mr Dickens' memory, although at the time when the note4 was written he had some three or four score Mss every month.

• 1. William John Bellew Archer (1806-72), Perpetual Curate of Churchill, Somerset, 1840-69; British Chaplain at Worms 1851-9; Vicar of Churchill 1870-2; clearly the previously unidentified "W. B. Archer", to whom CD wrote later in 1838 (Pilgrim Letters 1, pp. 485-6).
• 2. Unidentified.
• 3. In Bentley's Miscellany, which CD edited Jan 1837-Feb 1839.
• 4. Unidentified.