Item Info

Accession Number: 87-1551
Physical Description: [4] pages
Transcription:

Devonshire Terrace
  Friday Ninth March 1849
My Dear Leech.
I am deeply distressed (as we all [are] here) to receive your melancholy letter.  All consolation is poor and feeble in the first weight of such affliction, I know, but I cannot help sending you this word of affectionate sympathy and friendship.
Try to think it better that the dear little child is spared from greater uneasiness and pain, and is at peace now, than it could or would have been if she had lived a few years longer--to take a stronger hold upon you and her mother every day--and to leave a mightier blank in your hearts.  Above all, try to remember that she has certainly gone to the inestimable happiness of God, and that she is among his angels evermore.
Our loves to Mrs. Leech, with whom our thoughts are this morning.  It is a great relief to know that the end of your darling was so calm.  It must be so to her and you--or will be, when you have thought a little more about it, I feel sure.
I do not write as I would, for I really cannot say what I would.  Believe me that all that is cordial, true, and earnest--and full of sympathy and interest and affection--is what we feel here, and what I am quite unable to express, because [I] feel it so sincerely.
  Ever My Dear Leech
  Affectionately Your friend
  CHARLES DICKENS

MssDate: Friday Ninth March 1849
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

On mourning stationary.
Record created by BZ.

Recipient: Leech, John, 1817-1864
Provenance: Gift of Mrs. D. Jacques Benoliel, 12/6/54.

Bibliography:

The Letters of Charles Dickens, Pilgrim Edition, Volume Five, 1847-1849, p. 505-506.

Country: Creation Place Note:Devonshire Terrace
Country:England
City/Town/Township:London

Call Number: DL L516j 1849-03-09
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author