Item Info

Accession Number: 87-1529
Physical Description: [1] page
Material: paper
Transcription:

        Wednesday Twenty Fifth May, 1870

My Dear Sir
        I was much shocked to hear of your father’s death within a few hours of its occurrence, and have had your poor mother much in my thoughts ever since. I hope she will find in you and in her daughters, enduring comfort under her great bereavement.
       Circumstances divided me from your father for some years, but there was never any serious estrangement between us, and I am glad to remember now that we embraced affectionately when we met at Mr. Stanfield’s grave.
                                                         Faithfully yours
                                                                 Charles Dickens
Harry Lemon Esquire

MssDate: Wednesday Twenty Fifth May, 1870
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

Mark Lemon had died, probably of cancer of the throat on 23 May. Punch, 4 June contained a back-bordered memorial to him, dated 27 May, and a poem. 
Harry Lemon's mother (Mark Lemon's wife) born Nelly Romer.
The daughters of Mark Lemon are Lally, Betty, Helen and Polly. Betty married her first cousin, Robert Romer (later a High Court Judge) in 1864. Helen had married the painter Frank Topham, son of F.W. Topham. 
Dickens and Mark Lemon had not met for nearly nine years. 

Recipient: Lemon, Harry
Provenance: A gift of Mrs. D. Jacques Benoliel, 12/1954.

Bibliography:

Volume 12, pp. 534, The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Madeline House & Graham Storey; associate editors, W.J. Carlton…[et al.]

Country: Creation Place Note:Gad's Hill Place
Country:England
City/Town/Township:Higham by Rochester, Kent

Call Number: DL L544h 1870-05-25
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author