133 174
181
●
DICKENS, CHARLES. Signature and date, on a fragment of personal stationery,
with holograph inscription:“FaithfullyYours.” 2
1
/
2
x4
1
/
2
inches,“Gad’s Hill Place” stationery;
extreme bottom of paraph truncated, pinholes at upper edge and just above signature, rem-
nants of prior mounting at upper edge verso.
Rochester, Kent, 12 May 1865
[300/400]
182
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DICKENS, CHARLES. Autograph Letter Signed, to an unknown recipient (“My
Dear Sir”), requesting an estimate for the cost to publish a book by Mr. Townshend
[
Religious Opinions by the late Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend
, 1869] and thanking for
books on mines and miners. 1 page, 8vo, pale blue paper, “Gads Hill Place” stationery but
holograph “Shelbourne Hotel” is written above letterhead; recipient’s name clipped out
with loss to lower left corner (not affecting signature), horizontal folds, faint marginal dis-
coloration from matting; matted with portrait and framed.
Dublin, 7 January 1869
[1,000/1,500]
“
The late Mr. Townshend’s will obliges me to produce a volume of his ‘religious opinions’.
“
Will you send me an estimate . . . of the cost of print, paper, binding and publishing of a handsome
octavo volume, containing from 200 to 300 long pages[?] Good paper. An edition of 200 would be
amply large enough. . . . I include your commission and some moderate advertizing. . . .
“
I have to thank you for some books at Christmas.The book on mines and miners has interested me
exceedingly.”
When ReverendTownshend died at the end of February 1868, Dickens learned with surprise that his
deceased friend had appointed him executor of the estate. The will included a request that Dickens
compile Townshend’s notes on religion and publish them, a task he evidently did not savor.
182