The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To EMMA PENDER,1 19 FEBRUARY 1866

Text from facsimile in Peter Harrington Books online catalogue, Oct 2020.

Address: Mrs Pender | Crumpsall House | Manchester

GAD'S HILL PLACE,
HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT.
Monday Nineteenth February 1866

My Dear Mrs Pender

    I will "underwrite" Mr Oliver Heywood2 to day,3 and will certainly go down and vote for him tonight.4 My daughter5 is on a visit in Hampshire, or she would send her kind regard. We are looking for a house in London for a few months.6

    With cordial remembrance to Mr Pender, Believe me

            Very 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. Oliver Heywood (1825-92), senior partner in Heywood Brothers & Co. (his family's banking company), who promoted many philanthropic causes, including Manchester Mechanics' Institute, Chetham's Hospital, Manchester Grammar School and Owens College. He was a donor to Dickens's Guild of Literature and Art in 1854.
• 3. The "y" in "day" is not visible.
• 4. Presumably a vote on admission to a London club. John Pender and Oliver Heywood served on the Council of the Cotton Supply Association (Cotton Supply Association, Manchester: The Third Annual Report [Manchester: John J. Sale, 1860], p. 2).
• 5. Mamie Dickens (1838-96), CD's eldest daughter.
• 6. CD rented 6 Southwick Place, Hyde Park, from 26 Feb to 10 June 1866, so that Mamie could enjoy the London Season.