The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To EMMA PENDER,1 19 AUGUST 1867 

Text from facsimile in Peter Harrington online catalogue, October 2020.

Address: Mrs Pender, | Nunard2 Castle, Argyllshire

GAD'S HILL PLACE,

HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.

Monday Nineteenth August, 1867 

Dear Mrs Pender

            Your kind invitation is very tempting to me and my daughter.3 But (besides that we have visitors coming to us this month and next),4 I cannot this autumn lengthen the tether that holds me within thirty miles of London. Present and prospective occupations oblige me to be here.5

            My daughter joins with me in kind regards and cordial thanks for your remembrance.

            Believe me

                        Always Faithfully Yours

                        CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. Emma Pender (1816-90), née Denison, second wife of Sir John Pender (1816-96), Scottish textile merchant in Manchester, submarine communications cable pioneer, and politician, who organised work experience positions for CD's son Alfred (1845-1912) in the textile trade. See To Frederick Lehmann, Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 217.
• 2. Thus in Ms; a misspelling of "Minard".
• 3. Mamie Dickens (1836-96).
• 4. The novelist Charles Reade (1814-84) arrived at Gad's Hill on 2 Sept; see To Wilkie Collins, 28 Aug 1867, in Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 413, 414. CD's friend Henry Chorley 1808-72) arrived at Gad's Hill on 20 Sept; see To Chorley, 16 Sept 1867, in Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 429. George Dolby (d. 1900), who managed CD's reading tours, arrived on 21 September; see To Dolby, [20, 21 Sept 1867], in Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 435, 436.
• 5. CD was deliberating throughout August and September about whether he would go on a reading tour to the United States; see, for example, To George Dolby, 29-30 Aug 1867, in Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 415-6, and To Mamie Dickens, 28 Sept 1867, in Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 438.