Literary Life of the Rev. William Harness
Charles Dickens to William Harness, [May 1862]
“Will Miss Harness and
you come and dine with us, at the Star and Garter at Richmond, on Monday the 26th at a
quarter past six? Besides ourselves there will be only A.
Townshend and a young bride, a friend of ours, who from being a quiet
clergyman’s daughter in the Isle of Wight has suddenly expanded (like a girl in a
Fairy Tale) into fifty thousand a year and a castle,
“Affectionately yours always,
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
English novelist, author of
David Copperfield and
Great Expectations.
Mary Harness (1801-1869 fl.)
The daughter of John Harness and Sarah Dredge; she was the sister of William Harness who
kept house for him in London.
William Harness (1790-1869)
A Harrow friend and early correspondent of Byron. He later answered the poet in
The Wrath of Cain (1822) and published an edition of Shakespeare
(1825) and other literary projects. Harness was a longtime friend of Mary Russell
Mitford.
Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868)
Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a poet, writer for
Blackwood's Magazine, and close friend of Charles Dickens.