The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To PATRICK ALLAN-FRASER,1 12 May 1858

MS Hospitalfield Arts Centre.

Tavistock House

Wednesday Twelfth May 1858

My dear Sir

Many thanks for your kind and handsome letter. I have made its tenor known to Mr Ouvry,2 and will write to you again when I am in possession of his opinion.3

Very faithfully yours always

CHARLES DICKENS

Allan Fraser Esquire

• 1. Patrick Allan-Fraser (1813-1890; Dictionary of National Biography), artist and architect. Born Patrick Allan, son of an Arbroath stocking weaver; successively, house painter and artist; assumed additional name of Fraser 1851, after marrying in 1843 heiress of nearby estate of Hospitalfield. Devoted himself to managing his wife's estate and collecting works of art. Under his Will formed a Trust (1) to maintain Hospitalfield as an Art College for young students, and (2) to assist aged and infirm professional men, including specifically 'painters, sculptors or literary men'.
• 2. Frederic Ouvry (1814-81), CD's solicitor from 1856. See To Ouvry, [?10 May 1858], Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 562, for mention of this letter.
• 3. CD proposed that Ouvry seek an amendment of the Act of Parliament incorporating the Guild of Literature and Art, to enable the Guild to accept a gift of Hawkesbury Hall in Warwickshire from Fraser. See Michael Slater, "Munificence Declined: New Letters about the Guild of Literature and Art", Dickensian 111.1 (2015): 34-41.