In the letter, sent to campaigning politician Lord Robert Grosvenor in July 1838, Dickens thanks his friend for sending him the cutting of an incriminating newspaper advertisement for Winton Hallwhich promised the parents and guardians of young children “no vacations”, hinting that unwanted stepchildren or illegitimate offspring might be left with no questions asked, as long as payments were received. A handwritten letter written from Dickens details research he had carried out before inventing Squeers and clearly suggests that a Mr Twycross of Winton Hall in Westmoreland (now part of Cumbria) provided the prototype, and not William Shaw of Bowes Academy in Yorkshire, as academics have usually maintained. But this Thursday a key piece of literary evidence is up for auction in New York.
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