The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To JAMES SHERIDAN MUSPRATT,1 22 JULY [1847] 

MS Nathan Raab

London

Thursday Twenty Second July 

My Dear Sir

            Will you have the goodness, by return of post, to send a proof of the last complete bill,2 addressed "Mark Lemon3 Esquire, Punch office, Fleet Street, London"? We wish to print it with the address.4

                                                            Faithfully Yours

                                                                        CHARLES DICKENS

Dr Sheridan Muspratt

            "           "5

• 1. James Sheridan Muspratt (1821-71; Dictionary of National Biography), industrial chemist. On 8 July he had been elected Secretary of the Liverpool committee organising the benefit performances on 28 July, for CD's friend Leigh Hunt (1784-1859; Dictionary of National Biography), the poet, essayist and editor of literary journals, who perennially fell into financial difficulties.
• 2. The 4-page broadsheet, giving details of the performances, is reproduced in Pilgrim Letters 5, pp. 694-7.
• 3. Mark Lemon (1809-1870; Dictionary of National Biography), playwright and editor of Punch 1841-70.
• 4. The address was written by Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-73; Dictionary of National Biography), and delivered by John Forster (1812-76; Dictionary of National Biography).
• 5. The MS shows ditto marks below Muspratt’s name; this is a shorthand to indicate his address as it would appear on the envelope.