Devonshire Terrace, York Gate, Regents Park, June 9, 1841. One sheet, 4 x 4 5/8 in. (102 x 117 mm). One-page autograph note, signed in the third person to John Critchley Prince: "From Mr. Charles Dickens in payment of his subscription to Mr. Prince's Poems. With every friendly wish that can encourage and cheer him in his onward path. 1 Devonshire Terrace York Gate Regents Park Ninth June 1841." In mat with an engraved portrait of Dickens and one issue of Dickens's All the Year Round (December 5, 1874; No. 314, New Series). In frame, 19 1/2 x 30 3/4 in. (495 x 781 mm).

Published in The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume Twelve, p. 576 (Storey & Brown, Clarendon Press, 2002).

Dickens encourages a young and struggling poet.

John Critchley Prince (1808-66) was a Lancashire-born poet and weaver, known as the "Bard of Hyde," the "poet of the people," and the "factory bard." In 1840, he published his first book of poetry, Hours with the Muses, to which Dickens subscribed. Dickens and Prince became correspondents, although little of their letters have survived, with Dickens often praising the amateur poet, encouraging his continued writing, and offering him advice on publishing his work. Prince dedicated his Poetic Rosary (1851) to Dickens, "as a sincere testimony of the high esteem in which his humanizing writings, with their wide and generous sympathies, are held by his obedient servant, the author."