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Charles Dickens

Madeline House, Graham Storey, and Kathleen Mary Tillotson (eds), The British Academy/The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens, Vol. 3: 1842–1843

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To THOMAS BEARD, 8 SEPTEMBER 1842

MS Dickens House. Address: Thomas Beard Esquire | 42 Portman Place | Edge- ware Road | London.

Broadstairs | Thursday Eighth September 1842

My Dear Beard

When is that jolly old Baronet (may Jackasses sit upon his Grandfather's grave!)2 coming home? Here is the bathing, in a most unprecedented state—the Punch, toothsome beyond description—the Ranelagh Gardens3 exulting in the Proprietorship of a family of Tumblers, called "The Five Patagonians"—the Theatre open at Margate—all manner of breeziness, freshness, and waviness going on—and no Beard! Again I ask, when does Fir Grove4 come on to Dunsinane?—and pause for a reply.

  •                                              Faithfully Yours ever
  • Thomas Beard Esquire                              Charles Dickens

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Notes

Editor’s Note
2 Type of curse common in Morier's two Hajji Baba books; e.g., "May his father's grave be polluted" (The Adventures of Hajji Baba, 1894 edn, Ch. 70). CD's "Jackasses" may have been inspired by "I will defile the grave of 'dam's' [the much-used British swear-word] father. I will do whatever an ass can do to his mother, sister, wife, and all his ancestry" (Hajji Baba … England, i, Ch. 21).
Editor’s Note
4 The name of Easthope's house near Weybridge.
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