Faraday to Angela Georgina Burdett Coutts   2 June 1858

[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | Albemarle St W | 2 June 1858

Dear Miss Coutts

Your offer is very kind & I thank you heartily for it[.] I know the difficulty of getting tickets near the reading day1[.] Unfortunately I cannot avail myself of it for my wife is out of town & my niece & I expect to be listening to Grisi2[.] With thanks on all our parts I am

Very Truly Yours | M. Faraday


Address: Miss Coutts | Holly Lodge | Highgate

1
This probably refers to a reading from his own work by the journalist and novelist Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870, ODNB). Dickens, who was close to Burdett Coutts, often read to the public in these years. For his reading on 3 June 1858 at St Martin’s Hall and the black market created by the popularity of his readings see Times,2 June 1858, p.1, col. d.
2
Giulia Grisi (1811-1869, GDMM). Italian soprano, who sang in many performances in London at this time. On 3 June 1858 she sang at Covent Garden in Lucrezia Borgia by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848, GDMM). Times,1 June 1858, p.8, col. f.

Please cite as “Faraday3448,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3448