The following year, Dickens, being about to proceed to Cornwall, wrote to my grandfather asking his advice as follows:—
Devonshire Terrace,
Saturday, October Twenty-second, 1842.
My dear Sir,—I have an expedition afoot in which I think you can assist me.
I want to see the very dreariest and most desolate portion of the sea-coast of Cornwall; and start next Thursday, with a couple of friends, for St Michael's Mount. Can you tell me of your own knowledge, or through the information of any of the Mining Sub-Commissioners, what is the next best bleak and barren part? And can you, furthermore, while I am in those regions, help me down a mine?
I ought to make many apologies for troubling you, but somehow or other I don't—which is your fault and not mine.—Always believe me faithfully your friend,
Charles Dickens.
Dr Southwood Smith.
My grandfather's feeling about the Cornish coast is given in his answer:—
36 New Broad Street, October 25, 1842.