Written “Monday Morning” while Dickens was “at home” at Devonshire Terrace. He writes this letter after sending an earlier “note”, hoping to iron out some logistical crossed wires with Mitton (Dickens’ close friend and solicitor), with whom he plans to see later that day. After “an appointment with Miss Coutts […] at the Banking-House, I will […] come round to you immediately after I have fulfilled it. So I shall probably be in Southampton Buildings [Chancery Lane] on the heels of your messenger.”
Angela Burdett-Coutts of the banking dynasty was one of the richest women in England and a close personal friend of Dickens’. In 1846 Dickens and Burdett-Coutts founded a home in Shepherd’s Bush called Urania Cottage, with the aim of helping women who had fallen on hard times (often referred to as ‘fallen women’ at the time, although this is an archaic term now). Their mutual aim was a noble if imperfect one, and quite a radical idea for the time. The meeting Dickens mentions, “being on business”, could possibly have been relating to their philanthropic endeavour, Urania Cottage.
Thomas Mitton (1812-1878) was one of Dickens’ closest friends. Both Dickens and Mitton were born in 1812; it is likely their families lived near each other when they were children (near Kings Cross), and the pair spent a time together as clerks Charles Molloy’s office in 1828-9. Mitton was also Dickens’ solicitor for over 20 years.
The letter is written from Dickens’ home at Devonshire Terrace, where he and his family lived between 1839-1851. They moved in November 1851 to the larger Tavistock House. He wrote some of his most famous works while living at Devonshire Terrace, including: A Christmas Carol, The Old Curiosity Shop, Dombey & Son, and David Copperfield.
See William J. Carlton, “The Strange Story of Thomas Mitton”, Dickensian 56 (1960): 41-52.
A touch of fading to the ink in places, still in very good condition.
