The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To LADY MOLESWORTH,1 20 SEPTEMBER 1865

MS Private.

OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND

Wednesday Twentieth September 1865

My Dear Lady Molesworth

I have been in France for the last fortnight or so,2 and find your welcome note on my return. Its enclosure has been duly forwarded to the Editor and Proprietor of that truly national Journal, the Gad’s Hill Gazette.3

London is so intensely hot, that I got up and went out to a Fire in the neighbourhood here a night or two ago – to cool myself. Paris was hot enough last week,4 but it had not the unspeakable staleness of London. Our dear Chorley,5 being at Gad’s in August before going abroad for his holiday, comported himself to admiration. Only on the day on which he went away, was there the faintest sign upon him of a loose screw. He was going to cross that night, and it had been blowing stiffly. I have a strong impression that he took some opium, and not liquor. He suddenly fell into intensely low spirits, and looked at himself in the glass with great mournfulness. One of our visitors expressing wonder at this, another said: – “But do you think he can ever look in the glass and be in good spirits?”

I made an effort in Paris to see the Africaine6 at the Grand Opera,7 but was too hot to get across the doorstep. I made another effort to see the piece8 at the Vaudeville9 about which there was the disturbance between Girardin10 and Dumas fils.11 Same result. I made another effort to see the Show-Piece at the Porte St. Martin.12 No better success. Out of the Champs Elysées, I swooned into Franconi’s;13 but the very horses were lazy, and the only creature taking any trouble about any thing was the vicious Mule who pitched off all riders. He seemed to have an intention in him. Fechter14 has been doing wonders in Glasgow, and getting a great deal of money.

My daughter Mary has been fishing for Trout in Scotland – it is unnecessary to add has caught none. I have a new dog15 (Irish, but not Feanian)16 who has the horrible quality of hating small dogs, and who “took” Bouncer,17 like a pill, on the very first morning of his being established in the Stable Yard. Somebody chucked him under the chin, and he brought her up again – A little surprised, but not hurt. The St. Bernard18 has been dreadfully ill of canker in the ear; and her human way of expressing her being in pain, and entreating [ ]19 sympathy, has been very moving indeed. I am not surprised by what you tell me of our friend B.O.20 But is not Mrs. B.O.21 of the ice icy? I used to know her before she was married, and used to like her; but, seeing her in her own house last Season, thought hers a most unsatisfactory petrefaction.

My report of myself is – All right. I had a touch of Neuralgia all through August (I almost always have when I am hard at work), but I got rid of it within a few hours of crossing from Folkestone. That Railway accident occurred on the 9th. of June.22 I have not been able to bear an Express Train since, until this last week, when I was able to conquer the disagreeable sensations that beset me. The oddest of these, was, an impression, against my own senses and knowledge and against all reason, that the carriage was turning over; and it is curious that it invariably seemed to be turning over, – not on the side on which it really did pitch in the accident, but on the other side. I send this to the address of your note. It will reach you somewhere in course of time, I dare say. Let me not forget to add that I wear all my orders over the left, and am descended from Adam de Clay23 – direct line – had the first Murderer in my family, and the first ruffian of every degree.

Ever affectionately Yours 

CD.

P.S. I address you in town; seeing that you are due at the Mansion of the fair and stately W.24

• 1. Lady Molesworth, née Andalusia Carstairs (c.1809-88; Dictionary of National Biography), actress, singer, and society hostess; widow of Sir William Molesworth, Bt (1810-55), whom she married in 1844. Born in Ireland; made her début as a singer, under stage name of Andalusia Grant, at Drury Lane, Oct 27; her last stage appearance was as Hymen in Macready's revival of As You Like It, 1841. Became a leading literary hostess at their London home, 87 Eaton Place, and in Pencarrow, Cornwall. First met CD at Devonshire Terrace 3 Jan 1849 at a dinner to celebrate The Haunted Man; visited him at Gad's Hill; and saw him again in Paris in Jan 1863. Lady Dorothy Nevill records that CD, at one of Lady Molesworth's dinner-parties, "bubbled over with fun and conversation, talking in a way which resembled nothing so much as some of the best passages in his own books. He laughed and chaffed, telling me, I remember, that he had a great scheme for writing a cookery-book" (The Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill, ed. Ralph Nevill [London: E. Arnold,1906], p. 147). "He really liked the old lady", wrote Lord Redesdale (Memories [New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1915], vol. 2, p. 518).
• 2. After completing Our Mutual Friend on 2 Sep CD travelled to in Boulogne and Paris; he remained in France for two weeks.
• 3. Henry Fielding Dickens: for the “Gazette”, see Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 281 n.3 and Dickensian, XXV (1929), 255.
• 4. The heat in London and France was excessive: CD reported having slight sunstroke in Paris (Pilgrim Letters 11, p.91), where only on 27 Sep did The Times report the heat as “now” abating.
• 5. Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-72; Dictionary of National Biography), music critic and miscellaneous writer: see Pilgrim Letters 5, p. 360n. Left Gad’s Hill about 16 Aug (To Pauline Viardot, Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 82). A heavy drinker in his last years, he was of concern to his friends: see To Lady Molesworth, 12 May 68, and To Mrs Lehmann, 3 Feb 69, Pilgrim Letters 12, pp. 106, 286 & nn.
• 6. L’Africaine (“The African Maiden”) by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). Premiered posthumously, Paris Opéra, 28 Apr 65.
• 7. The Salle Le Pelletier, home of the Paris Opéra, 1821-73.
• 8. Les deux soeurs (“The Two Sisters”) by Emile de Girardin; first performed 16 Aug.
• 9. At the corner of the Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin and the Boulevard des Capucines.
• 10. Emile de Girardin, writer, journalist and politician; founder and owner of the conservative La Presse: see Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 34 & n.
• 11. Alexandre Dumas (1824-95), son of the novelist. Best known for his play, La dame aux camélias (1852), later turned into a novel. The original disturbance dated back to Apr 65, with production at the Théâtre Français of Le supplice d’une femme (“The Sufferings of a Wife”).Written originally by Girardin, the Français had called in Dumas, who effectively rewrote it. Presented anonymously, both Girardin and Dumas subsequently claimed credit for its great success. Girardin then wrote Les deux soeurs to prove he could succeed unassisted. The result was a failure, though it continued to be performed, supported by Girardin’s newspaper and a claque. It achieved one purpose: to get Girardin talked about.
• 12. La femme et l’empereur (“The Wife and the Emperor”) by Marc Fournier, manager of the theatre, on the Boulevard St Martin.
• 13. The circus and equestrian display, directed by Adolphe Franconi, on the Champs Elysées at Rond Pont.
• 14. Charles Albert Fechter (1824-79; Dictionary of National Biography), actor, at first in Paris; came to London, 1860, and from then acted in English: see Pilgrim Letters 9, p. 405n. He was on a summer tour to Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester.
• 15. Sultan, an Irish bloodhound, the gift of Percy Fitzgerald: To Fitzgerald, 23 Sep 65, in Pilgrim Letters 11, pp. 95-6.
• 16. Spelt thus in MS; the Fenian Brotherhood, founded 1858 by John O’Mahony (1816-77; Dictionary of National Biography), agitated for an Irish Republic. Sultan, who was vicious, had eventually to be put down.
• 17. Mamie’s white Pomeranian: see Pilgrim Letters 9, p. 309 n.4.
• 18. Linda, the puppy of a St Bernard brought over byAlbert Smith; acquired by late 1857 (Pilgrim Letters 8, p. 489 & n).
• 19. Two or three illegible letters crossed out.
• 20. Ralph Bernal Osborne, né Ralph Bernal (1808-82; Dictionary of National Biography), Liberal politician. Married 1844 Catherine Isabella, heiress of Sir Thomas Osborne, Bt, and took his wife’s name: see Pilgrim Letters 10, p. 85n.
• 21. CD had met her at least by Spring 1844: To Miss Osborne, 3 Apr 44, Pilgrim Letters 4, p. 93 & n.
• 22. The Staplehurst railway accident: see To Beard, 10 June, Pilgrim Letters 11, p. 49 & nn.
• 23. A hit at claims to aristocratic descent: CD comes from Adam (formed of common clay) and is related to Cain, the first murderer; compare the mock genealogy of Chuzzlewit, ch.1.
• 24. Unidentified.