The Charles Dickens Letters Project

 To GEORGE JERDAN,1 28 JUNE 1841

 Text from  facsimile on eBay, December 2004.

 Royal Hotel Edinburgh.2

Twenty Eighth June 1841.

My Dear Sir.

I am heartily obliged to you for your kind Invitation, forwarded to me through your brother William,3  and write to thank you for it – though I very much regret to add that the arrangements4 I have made and the short time I can spare from London, prevent my seeing5 you, as I should have desired.

George Jerdan Esquire

Faithfully Yours

 CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. George Jerdan (1786-1849), fourth son of John Jerdan of Kelso; writer and attorney; factor to local landowners, 1818; m. Sarah Smith, also of Kelso, 1819; by 1826 was proprietor of the Kelso Mail and agent for the Sun Insurance Company. Younger brother of William Jerdan (see below), through whom George sent CD his invitation. Two elder brothers had both died: John Stuart joined the army and died at the Cape of Good Hope in 1822, and Gilbert moved to Glasgow and died in London, 1827.
• 2. CD was in Edinburgh, 22 June-4 July, where he was given a dinner in his honour, 25 June, and voted the Freedom of the City, 29 June: see further Pilgrim Letters 2, pp. 310-11, 313-15 & nn.
• 3. William Jerdan (1782-1869; Dictionary of National Biography); editor in London of the Literary Gazette, 1817-50. An early contributor to Bentley’s Miscellany; met CD apparently through Ainsworth: see further Pilgrim Letters 1, p. 207n.
• 4. CD was heavily engaged in Edinburgh until Sunday 4 July, when he left by previous arrangement for a fortnight in the Highlands. He also wrote Master Humphrey’s Clock, Nos 69 and 70 (Barnaby Rudge, chs 45-48), while in Scotland.
• 5. Written after “meeting” deleted.