- Brief description
- Letter, from Charles Dickens to Thomas Beard, 17 December 1839
- Label
- Dickens seems to joke to Thomas Beard, one of his oldest friends, about Beard having a bruised eye - he quips about "minding your eye" (slang for being careful) and asks if it happened "bacchanalially" (from being drunk). He also mentions Cuban cigars, which Dickens loved, and references his "war" (pay dispute) with "the Burlington Street Brigand" - his boss, Richard Bentley of Bentley's Miscellany.
- Collection
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Object number
- A24
- Object type
- letter
- Production person
- Dickens, Charles
- Production date
- 17/12/1839
- Inscription content
- TO THOMAS BEARD, [17 DECEMBER 1839]
MS Dickens House. Date: PM 18 Dec 39 (Wednesday).
1 Devonshire Terrace | Tuesday Morning.
My Dear Beard.
Will you dine with us on Sunday? As we shall be quite alone, you needn't "mind your eye"—speaking of which reminds me to ask how you got it. Did you take it naturally, or bacchanalially?
We have been very sorry to hear of your sister's ill health. Our best remembrances and wishes wait upon her.
War to the knife and with no quarter on either side, has commenced with the Burlington Street Brigand.
Faithfully Yours always
Charles Dickens
P.T.O.
When you go down Oxford Street (for I forget his precise whereabout) will you order me from the immortal Harris a one pound box of the unrivalled Cubas?
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