5964. RB to Charles Kent

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 255–256.

19. Warwick Crescent,

Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.

Oct: 20. ’67.

Dear Sir, [1]

I am very sorry to say that I am quite unable to go to the Dinner about to be given to my old & dear friend Dickens: [2] he well knows that my best wishes go with him through life.

Pray take my sincere thanks for the honor you have desired to do me, & believe me,

Yours very faithfully

Robert Browning–

Charles Kent Esq–

Address: Charles Kent Esq. / Committee / Temple. Redirected: 1 Campden Grove / Kensington.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Huntington Library.

1. William Charles Mark Kent (1823–1902), owner and editor of The Sun, a liberal evening newspaper (1850–71), was a close friend of Charles Dickens.

2. A “grand public farewell dinner before Dickens’s second American public-reading tour” (1867–68) was held on 2 November at the Freemasons’ Tavern (see ODNB). The event was organized by Kent, chaired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and attended by over 400 people.

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