File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 2 February 1847 (ce82091d-43e8-42a0-bb94-058b1731123c).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#006

Craigie Castle Feb 2d 1847.
Your little, airy postilion came bounding down to me, yesterday, dearest, & was welcomed from afar with a shout of joy. As fresh & free from dust was he as the loving words he bore, & his long journey seemed as light a matter to him as if he were an embodied thought. Two precious letters I have now to thank you for. I felt there was one hovering in the air when last I wrote & sent my heart out to meet it. My letters for the steamer have, since then, kept my pen too busy, or another should have gone to you, but writing begins to grow a fatiguing task to me, so I can not promise to be as faithful in that way as I have been. But pray have no anxious thoughts about me. I am as well & strong as one can be, & the evil influences of the Influenza have entirely departed. I do not [p. 2] feel equal, to be sure, to party-going, neither have I the inclination for it. The ball, you speak of, at Mrs Grays was a handsome one, but nothing remarkable as you conjecture. The Chronotype undertook to be severe upon it, which notice was copied into other papers – why Mr G. excited the editor’s spite I know not. It was in connection with some worthless nephew whose poverty the paper chose to contrast with the expenditures of the ball. I did not go to it, & there was rather a falling off of young damsels on account of Miss Peabody’s death, so I fear Mrs G. wont be much encouraged to another attempt after her long withdrawal from ball-giving. Mrs Tom B. Curtis has had a ball in her new house, opposite the Perkins house in Mt Vernon St, - which I have heard much praised – Lord Elgin was there by way of lion, &, it is said, many lace robes suffered from the spurs of his aide, young Egerton, - who appeared in full uniform – A great piece of affectation – the spurs, by the way.
We had a very pleasant dinner last [p. 3] week at Mrs Bennet Forbes,’ in honor of the Feltons. The Motleys, Stackpoles, Howes, Miss Cary, Sumner & ourselves completed the guests, [crossed out: & all] being well known to each other it was very merry & sociable. The dinner was handsome, but very peculiar, being, literally, all game, but the soup & fish & one solitary dish of sweetheads; par exemple, we had ducks & olives, capon & birds, first course; two pair of wild-ducks & birds again second course! The desert [sic] service of old & modern china was very rich & rare, none of it French but genuine such as we think one plate of a treasure. & could hardly be matched, I imagine, out of Boston, - also the tea equipage of Chinese silver, most massive, with quaint dragons embossed upon it.
I had two faint turns at the end from the heat, - but luckily they were only noticed by the ladies, & the change of air soon revived me. We had very nice singing from the Carys & Julia Howe in the evening. The latter looked uncommonly well in a pretty French dress & was in one of her most joyous moods.
A new engagement will astonish [p. 4] you I fancy. Elisabeth Welles (Chestnut St) to Stephen Perkins widower! The Gardner-Sullivan marriage brought it about, where they were much together, &, Harriet says, it is quite a romantic affair, although he is rather deaf & has several children. Papa Ben is highly pleased, so I suppose we should all be. As I do not know him personally I cannot judge about it as well as you can. I made your father a visit the day after I wrote you, & found him pretty well, although a night-attack of gout in the stomach had reduced his strength & flesh somewhat. He has been gaining since, but will, I have no doubt, rejoice in your return as shall we all. I am very thankful it will take place before I am put in limbo. I shall be very happy to sit to Cheney for you, but, as I cannot very well go in to him, perhaps I had better postpone it until June when he may have leisure to take it out here. Mary Dixwell was in ecstasies over yr portrait by him, which I do wish I had before my eyes. I hear he has taken a charming one of Cora.
[p. 1 cross] Sumner has been arguing off minors from serving in the Mexican War - & says one man of thirty came to him, with tears in his eyes, to know if he could’nt get him off his mother was so distressed about his going –
Caleb Cushing was eloquent to him about the war on account of the pomegranates, - oranges & black-eyed maidens!! To Sumner I mean not to the volunteer – What would Mrs G- say!
[p. 5, marked 5] We took Willy & Hatty to see the Viennoise children, last Saturday pm. It was a charming spectacle; the boxes filled with little flushed, earnest faces, & the stage swarming with these gay butterflies. The dancers are very beautiful, executed with such marvellous [sic] precision & ease, & the grouping something magical. A mirror-dance, where half, behind a large gauze, copy every motion of those before it, was lovely - & an oriental one where the smallest are dressed as black slaves, & morning-glories are formed by red & white scarfs in every stage of blow with great clashing of cymbals & a variety of gorgeous effects. The theatre is very pretty, with famous large boxes, a centre table in each, & chairs instead of cramping benches.
I send you my letter from Mary, thinking you might be amused with her account of a Bracebridge Hall Xmas at one of Mac’s cousins. [p. 6, marked 6] Tom has been confined to his room 3 weeks by a troublesome vein, which is no great affair, but thus imprisons him. He gets much reading, however, & painting to pass the time. I was much interested in yr account of Wms theories & plans. They are such as are occupying many sober, thinking men both here & abroad, particularly in France, & must in the end bring forth useful fruit. Heroic deeds of benevolence in the poor are rewarded now, in France, the world waking up at last, as Dickens in his “battle of Life,” to recognise that there is nobler heroism in private life than on the battle-field. The dawn is breaking steadily every where, and Christianity becoming something better than a name, luminous chiefly on the map.
Henry went to Portland last week for two days & Sam came to cheer my loneliness – I believe I shall never outgrow the thousand fears that beset me when he is absent, nor [p. 7, marked 7] learn to bear better that wretched sense of a constant want – the hunger of the soul, which I once could endure tolerably, but now, thro’ much pampering, get very heartsick under. He has brought back a dismal cold from that icy region, where he says they are all insane about the rail way to Montreal, hoping in time to snatch away our British steamers, & perform all kinds of improbabilities. We have been reading some beautiful poems by a Mr Howe, whose fame should be greater, & are now looking about to see what next to devour.
I was amused at yr account of Lizzie’s arraying herself in past finery. I well remember the shout I gave, a year or two since, in coming across a French, pink-satin bonnet of [p. 8, marked 8] dimensions for Madame Gargantua, & have often thought of preserving a full costume for future wonderment. My wedding bonnet & gown I think I shall, for sentiments sake also. Poor Fanny Wright – how matronly she must look! I hope you will see her. I add scrap to scrap loving to linger near you beloved, & catch glimpses of yr happy face & heart. All joy & blessings rest upon them, never to depart! I grow impatient to have you in my arms, & love you “all to pieces” as Charley says. In the meantime fill all the space between us with loving thoughts & wishes, one pursuing the other faster than the words on the magnetic wires. Henry sends also a host of airy messengers – to bear his true affection.
With kindest remembrances to Wm & “Lizzy” ever thy devoted Fanny.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; health and illness; social life; henry wadsworth longfellow; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1847 (1011/002.001-017); (LONG-FileUnitName)