File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 27 July 1847 (0af81a9b-9487-4a67-bb86-d15f69ce7e98).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#019

Oak Grove. Martin’s Point
July 27th 1847.
I am very unwilling, dearest, to resign all hopes of seeing you here tho’ your last letter is not very encouraging, & I still trust another is on the road, in reply to mine from this place, promising better. I suppose your main difficulty is how to pass the time after we are obliged to leave until you should need to be in Boston, as you are not desirous to be there, apparently sooner than necessary, but it cannot be that your words imply you wont return there at all? I do indeed wish Wm could be happier there, for I see how painful it must be to you to have your cares so divided, but if he would bring you here & remain with you as long as we do, why could he not then return to Geneseo for as long time as he could be reconciled to be absent from you, that you might at least pass this winter at home. How I wish you could pass it at my house- If it were not for your father I should insist upon it, & as it is I have a great mind to. What delight I should take [p. 2] in nursing & watching over you!
I suppose you must have heard of poor Stackpole’s shocking death, which is too horrible to be believed, but makes me ill every time I think of it. At first we heard Susan was with him which was adding horror to horror, but it was not so, - curel enough is it to imagine her despair when the news reached her, softened as it may have been. What a singular termination of such a life as his, in its violence & suddenness such a contrast to his indolent, luxurious habit that it is more startling than if happening to a man of different temperament. It must have arrested the Motley’s [sic] most sorrowfully in the midst of their journey, & poor Lathrop would feel it keenly, - so long a friend & constant companion. What tragedies we see enacted during our short lives which need no theatrical genius to set them off! what exaggerated romances we turn leaf by leaf in passing from year to year! The soberest Calvinist, eschewing written ones with holy honor, is unconsciously helping to bring about some plot as ingenious as any, or many, in the books he condemns merely as books. A bright, [p. 3] cheerful thought struck us the other evening while watching the sparkling message of light the moon sent to us over the water, as we walked upon the bridge connecting this point with the mainland, where we enjoy nightly the gorgeous sunsets & the rising tide, while less romantic mortals are making it a bridge of sighs to expiring sculpins. It was this – but I will give you Henry’s words as recorded in his Journal. “Among other thoughts we had this cheering one, that the whole sea was flashing with this heavenly light, though we saw it only in a single track. The dark waves were the dark providences of God, luminous to others, & even to ourselves in another position.” Of course if every wave could be turned to the light as those are between you & the moon, there would be no darkness visible, & the united reflections of all those upon the bridge of sighs (or of life) would offer one burnished mirror of heavenly radiance – a glad thought which I shall carry hence as a good angel, & I send it to you to cast another track, brighter than a railway one. [p. 4] I would have given much to have had you here last Sunday to hear Dr Nichols (the Channing of Portland) preach one of his most remarkable sermons, laden with thought & love. One very beautiful passage was an admonition to the young to develop their natures as perfectly & with as steady effort as the humblest flowers at this season, leaf after leaf &c, but the most interesting part to you would have been the idea of the influence of nature to attune the discordant mind, its own exquisite harmony bringing back the harmony of God’s greatest work by a subtle sympathy, a delicious thought expressed in a manner he is alone capable of, peculiarly fresh, rich & original, & illustrated by the fact of a lady’s mind having been restored to reason by the sight of [crossed out: Niagara] some grand scenery. He has a very odd manner; at times most conversational, but his voice, when stirred by the breath of reverence, modulates itself, like an Eolian harp, to tones of solemnest utterance. It seems so out of his control that I like to hear him, strange as it seems at first. He is really but the unconscious organ of the spirits promptings – in his speech I mean.
Our house is quite full, but they come & go. [p. 5] The most permanent people seem to be a Mr & Mrs Bancroft – he a rather counter jumper, weak-minded-looking individual, but she a pretty bright, graceful little woman with a very nice sister who told me last night with modesty & awe “what a happiness it was to see my husband face to face,” “that she watched his every look”!! &c, &c as coolly as if I were his grandmother. Such things I have to bear every day, & he, too, poor man, & we are quite hardened to them!! Then there is a pale, stately Mrs Dewey with a little boy named Orville, but what relation to the Dr I know not – inclined to be chatty & neighborly, as she is one to me also permanent A Mr Phillips, with singing daughter from Mobile, but birds of passage I believe, & Miss Bradley & brother of oily association. Divers unknown stout women, & one strange couple – a good looking woman as large as Mrs Otis with a little, deformed husband ‘no bigger than one’s thumb,’ with a sprinkling of bachelors &c. Last evening two Miss Chadwicks from Portland, & two pretty cousins of the same name from Salem came over as guests of Mrs Bancroft, & I went down to hear their playing, [p. 6] & witness some very merry quadrilles & reels – but it was my first essay below of evenings, as after our sunset walk I generally read to Henry before retiring which in this sleepy air one does early. There is a very nice billiard table which we practise [sic] upon often, - & excellent bowling alley below stairs & above, with parapets at the sides of the board for the especial benefit of ladies, I suppose, who sometimes indulge in rolling at the boys’ legs instead of the real wooden pins.
July 29th My note partook of the lazy influence of the air, & has remained unfinished long enough for me to acknowledge your welcome letter of yesterday. I wont give you up yet for I feel as if you both would enjoy this place if you were once here. Wm could be as quiet as he liked & this pure sea-air would strengthen him so much better than any inland can do. During those hottest days upon breezes were sweeping thro’ our shady grove from Casco bay, or running round it with the tide up Presumpscot River. The [p. 7] latter days have been as fresh, as October weather most invigorating & delicious with a bright sun making the sea so blue & the sunsets & mellow moonlight most glorious to behold Oh that you were here to see this full moon rise over the many islands of this beautiful bay & turn the waves to burnished gold & throw rich shadows from the trees over the orchards & meadows. Annie is with me for a week & we strolled yesterday upon the mossy cliffs wandering over a spring of purest fresh water within a foot of the briny ocean, sea-weed & wild flowers mingling together in a strange manner – like rough characters among refined & gentle relatives.
Who should appear at our side at table a day or two since but Bryant the poet – his wife & daughter. They were journey about in Maine & stumbled upon this en ranto. He looks very old & grey to me, but with a finer expression than when I last saw him in the turmoil of N. York, & seemed to be softened by the change of scene. While lying at his wife’s [p. 8] feet in the grove & looking affectionately in her face as he discoursed upon acorns, I recalled the mood in which he wrote the Future Life. She is a very pleasing mild mannered woman & he had a pretty daughter growing up like her. He played with the children charmingly, & ran off to rescue Charley & his wheelbarrow from trouble with a ready kindness love to the little folks alone prompts - & fascinated Erny by planting forked sticks in the ground for ready grown trees.
I send you the proof sheet of the Introduction to Evangeline (which you need not return as Henry has another) that you may get an idea of the look of the Poem, &, through the open door [crossed out: get] have a glimpse which may tempt you to enter.
I wish Mrs James would bring her little Nannie here, the bathing is delicious – the water not too cold, & the bathing house better for a child than the sea beach. The sea is tame, of course, compared with Nahant, the many islands so break the force of the tide, but I think the air suits me better than that very bracing one. With much love to Wm & Lizzie & many kisses from the children & Henry to yourself ever thy faithful
FannyL.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; longfellow works; evangeline; places; united states; portland; me; subject; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1847 (1011/002.001-017); (LONG-FileUnitName)