The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To HENRY SOLLY,1 12 JANUARY 1849 

Composite text from extracts (aa) and facsimile (bb) in Bonhams online catalogue, May 2020.

Assuring them that ^aI need not endeavour to express the interest I feel in all such endeavours towards the improvement and happiness of the working-classes as that to which you have devoted yourselves^a but regretting that other commitments2 prevent him from presiding over the proposed soirée.3

            ^bI am, Gentlemen,

            With all good wishes for your success,

            Your faithful Servant

            CHARLES DICKENS^b

• 1. Henry Solly (1813-1903; Dictionary of National Biography), social reformer and founder of working men's clubs. Several new clubs opened in 1849, including the Brighton Working Men's Institute and the Working Men's Institute of Cheltenham.
• 2. Untraced.
• 3. Untraced.