Mr. Austen Henry Layard.
Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, 16th December, 1851.
My dear Layard,[52]
I want to renew your recollection of "the last time we parted"—not at Wapping Old Stairs, but at Miss Coutts's—when we vowed to be more intimate after all nations should have departed from Hyde Park, and I should be able to emerge from my cave on the sea-shore.
Can you, and will you, be in town on Wednesday, the last day of the present old year? If yes, will you dine with us at a quarter after six, and see the New Year in with such extemporaneous follies of an exploded sort (in genteel society) as may occur to us? Both Mrs. Dickens and I would be really delighted if this should find you free to give us the pleasure of your society.
Believe me always, very faithfully yours.
1852.
Mr. James Bower Harrison.
Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, 5th January, 1852.