The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To BENJAMIN B. FRENCH,1 [24 MARCH 1842]

MS (envelope only) Dan Calinescu. Address: B. [N.]2 French Esquire | House of Representatives | Washington. PM Baltimore Md. 24 Mar. Date: during CD’s first American visit: he left Baltimore on the morning of 24 Mar 42 after staying there a few days; on 24 Mar 68, he was in Newhaven. 

• 1. Benjamin Brown French (1800-70). Entered the Clerk’s Department of the American House of Representatives, 1833, and became Clerk in 1845. Later Commissioner of Public Buildings and worked on the Capitol building. Met CD at the House of Representatives, 10 Mar 42, and attended a dinner for CD on 14 March (Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee’s Journal, 1828-1870, ed. Donald B. Cole & John J. McDonough, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1989, pp. 138-9; see also Pilgrim Letters 3, p. 132, n. 1).
• 2. CD forgot or was uncertain about the second initial: could be N or R, but not B.