Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Dickens') to John Hardwick, February 8, 1855.

$12,500

Dickens writes about Susan Mayne, whose case had been taken up by the Magistrate John Hardwick.  Two pages, 8vo, with original envelope signed ('Charles Dickens'), Tavistock House, February 8, 1855. 

Content and History:

Charles Dickens’ letter to the Magistrate John Hardwick tells a real life story of crime, charity, and redemption.  It deals with a fallen woman, Susan Mayne, who Dickens tried to rescue from the streets of London in 1855.

Dickens was no stranger to the poverty of 19th century London.  He was fascinated by the plight of the poor and downtrodden, particularly women and children. He was even more fascinated with the idea of change and redemption.

In May 1846 Angela Burdett Coutts, the wealthy heir to the Coutts banking fortune, approached Dickens regarding setting up home for the redemption of fallen women.  Dickens initially resisted but eventually became involved.  The home would offer a different approach to other organizations that offered a harsh and punishing regimen for such women. This home would take the women from the streets and encourage them to become proficient in domestic household chores and to learn to read and write.  A disciplined but supportive environment would be maintained to gently re-integrate them into society.

Dickens founded the home in Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush. It was called Urania Cottage. He was involved in many aspects of the day-to-day running of the home. He set the house rules, reviewed the accounts and also interviewed the prospective residents, some of whom became characters in his books.

Dickens scoured prisons and workhouses for potentially suitable candidates for Urania Cottage. He also relied on friends, such as the recipient of this letter, the Magistrate John Hardwick to bring them to his attention.  Once found, each potential candidate was given an anonymous printed invitation written by Dickens called ‘An Appeal to Fallen Women’, which he signed only as 'Your friend'.  If the woman accepted the invitation, Dickens would personally interview her and decide if she could be admitted to the home.

One of those women was Susan Mayne. 

In January 1855, Susan Mayne was apprehended by the police and brought before John Hardwick’s court where he committed her into custody for seven days for disorderly conduct.  It later appeared that the police had been rather hasty in her apprehension and Hardwick took pity on her.  He took up her case and contacted Dickens to explain the situation.  He requested that she be considered an ideal candidate to live in Urania Cottage.  While awaiting Dickens’ reply, Hardwick allowed her to be supported by the Poor-box at the Jailers House.
 
Upon Dickens’ request, the Jailer, took Susan Mayne to Urania Cottage to be interviewed by Dickens.  He was not as impressed by her manner as Hardwick.  Being suspicious of the account she gave of herself, he asked for it to be enquired into and the truth ascertained before he would admit her to the Home.  Upon confirming the truth of her story, Dickens dropped his objections to her admission and on Wednesday, January 29, 1855, Mayne was collected from the Jailer’s House and took up residence at Urania Cottage.

Shortly after she was admitted to the Home, Dickens was prompted to write the present letter to John Hardwick.  The suspicion amongst the residents of the Home was that Mayne was pregnant (which would be contrary to the rules of admission).  Dickens begins the letter:

‘Our ladies have great apprehensions that Susan Mayne is in the family way.  On the other hand, our usual medical attendant at the Home is rather of the contrary opinion.  A fortnight or so will probably decide the question;’

Dickens was ruthless about getting rid of girls whose presence was considered disruptive to others at the Home.  Being pregnant was against the rules of residence at Urania Cottage and for that reason Dickens had no hesitation in making contingent preparations to send Susan Mayne back to John Hardwick and back to the Jailer’s House. He continued:

‘…but if she should be in this state, it will be necessary for her to be taken away as soon as the fact is ascertained.  In that case, I shall be obliged (most reluctantly) to turn her upon your hands again.’

Dickens understood the sensitivity of Angela Burdett Coutts to the suffering of the women of the Home.  If Susan Mayne were to be handed back to Hardwick, Dickens wanted the handover to be as swift and inconspicuous as possible.  To ensure that, he formulated a plan for George Welsh, the Jailor of Marlborough Street Police Court, to personally come to the home and collect Mayne. That way, she could be taken back to the jailor’s house with the minimum fuss, disruption and upset to either Miss Burdett Coutts or any of the other fallen women in residence at Urania Cottage.  Dickens informs Hardwick of the procedure that will be followed if her removal were deemed necessary:
 
‘As the matter would necessarily be painful to Miss Coutts, and Mrs. Marchmont the lady who superintends the Home is naturally uneasy about it, I have directed her, if her misgivings should be confirmed, to write to Mr. Welsh and ask him to remove the unfortunate object of your sympathy.’
 
Dickens hoped that Susan Mayne would be able to remain at Urania Cottage to continue her rehabilitation. He expressed that hope in giving Hardwick the procedure to be followed should Mayne not be pregnant:
 
‘If she should not be in the family-way after all (which I earnestly hope she may not be), then Welsh will hear nothing and need do nothing.'
 
At the time this letter was written, Dickens was living at Tavistock House.  And although the present letter is headed 'Tavistock House' by Dickens, we know that he did not write it at home.  A rare element of this Dickens letter is that even after 160 years, it is still accompanied by the original transmittal envelope.   The front of the envelope contains the One Penny stamp affixed by Dickens, the address of John Hardwick and a second Dickens signature.  The reverse contains the postmark 'Shepherds Bush'.  That postmark indicates the letter was written by Dickens at Urania Cottage and posted it directly from there.

Dickens involvement with Urania cottage ended in 1858.  His relationship with Angela Burdett Coutts cooled after he separated from his wife.  The separation followed his affair with the 19-year-old actress Ellen Ternan, which, for Dickens and others, may have undermined his moral basis for rescuing fallen women.

By that time, however, nearly 100 women had passed through Urania Cottage and Dickens guessed that roughly 50% of them prospered after they left the home.  Many of them desiring to escape the social stigma of the past set off to build new lives in Australia.

Dickens was clearly sympathetic to the plight of fallen women and his books are littered with examples of them.  Nancy in Oliver Twist, Little Em’ly in David Copperfield and Oliver Twist’s mother are all examples of the exact type of fallen women for whom Dickens intended the Home to be a sanctuary of redemption. The women of Urania Cottage must have been a rich source of material for a incessant collector of stories such as Dickens. Indeed, he kept their stories in a casebook. Sadly for scholars, he seems to have burned it in a great bonfire of letters and papers at his Gad's Hill, home in 1860. Luckily, this letter survives to tell the story of one of those women, at least in part.

Because Dickens burned his casebook, it is not known what happened to Susan Mayne.  But this letter written in Dickens’ own hand stands as a lasting testament to the way in which her life was affected and influenced by Charles Dickens and his desire to rescue the fallen women of Victorian London.

The present letter is published in:

'The Letters of Charles Dickens', Pilgrim Edition, Vol. VII, p.527.

Biography:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the foremost novelist of the Victorian era and is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers in the history of the English language.  He is best known for novels such as The Pickwick Papers (1837), The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), and Great Expectations (1860).