File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Longfellow) Greenleaf, 18 April 1845 (f58ac7c5-c36e-4e34-a0a0-fdd96d9c8d16).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-015#007

Cambridge. April 18th 1845.
My dear Mary,
Long ago should I have thanked you for your pleasant letters & the Gombo which accompanied the last. It arrived in safety, & your receipt was duly followed in its concoction, - the result was a very palateable soup, & I flatter myself, or my cook, in believing it was of the right consistency. The Gombo however, was rather undiscoverable therein, & I shall next try Mr. Christie’s which allows more Gombo. He sent us 6 bottles! so we are well stocked against any Southern friends. It seems to me a very odd soup to give at balls – rather substantial & not very refined for such occasions. I cant help thinking it a negro invention.
We are delighted to hear your winter has been so pleasant – they seem to improve each year. I prophesy ever increasing success to James in business & already hear from more than one quarter how much he is estimated.* Give him my best congratulations, & wishes for the Future, with much lo sisterly affection. Mrs Greenleaf’s return to Cambridge is a very happy event to me. It was dismal enough to pass the closed blinds, & my visits to town were so hurried & [p. 2] full of business that I saw nothing of her.
She seems very well content to be here again, & has the comfort of Mrs Fuller’s society & the children. I have not yet seen her as she was not strong enough to see me when I called. They all seemed to have paid dearly for a Western life, the advantages of which have always appeared to me worth little in comparison with the dangers of fever & ague & the million discomforts.
We have had a long & pleasant visit from Stephen & Alex. The former was not very well when he came, but, either though Dr Wesselhoeft, or a change of air, left us greatly improved. Alex brought with him from Washington a huge lion-skin, a gift from the Commodore, & it was a pretty sight to see little rosy Charlie playing upon it & fearlessly grasping the claws & tail. This infant Hercules has developed a tooth at last, & has been promoted into shoes & short petticoats, so that he creeps about the room like a spider, & is beginning to stand up alone, with the help of a chair. His physique flourishes with ever increasing vigour, & he is hard at work upon something from dawn till dusk. I rejoice to see him so well, but sometimes sigh for a little more sentiment & repose in his nature!
Last Saturday evening poor Mary Felton left us. She died tranquilly having been sinking for a few days previous, & without as much pain as we all feared. She has borne with such rare patience, cheerfulness & self forgetfulness [p. 3] her long & distressing illness, & her spirit seemed so ripened for a better soil, that we cannot but rejoice in her release, but poor Felton is heavily crushed by it, & for her children it is inefarable. They were carried in to see her the day after her death, & believing her still alive, feeling their own life too strongly to conceive of death, kissed her cold lips, & threw their arms around her neck, & spoke to her as usual, the youngest running off to gather some flowers for her. I had a very touching note from Felton yesterday, & he says when he hears his children calling for their mother it seems as if his heart would break! A great deal of sympathy has been shown. We accompanied the hearse to Mt Auburn. It was one of the few warm Spring-like days we have had, & all the gloom of a funeral vanished as w[e] entered it. There was nothing painful to me in s[ee]ing the body deposited there, with the warm sun shining into the grave & the birds singing over it, & I was never so struck with the soothing, cheering influence of this spot for mourners compared to all other places of interment. Mrs Whitney is to remove to Felton’s house to take care of the children.
The old Forster house has been let for 3 years & the family are already there. I had some lingering hopes Emmeline Austin would take it again this summer & therefore feel disappointed to see it appropriated. Henry has been very busy of late in setting out trees. We shall have in time an evergreen screen to shut out the Arsenal & other undesirable objects, but alas we cannot stop our busy opposite neighbours – a barn is at this mo [p. 4 bottom] ment rising to cut off the bend of the river & part of Mt Auburn. Bachi is very ill so Henry has had all his duties to attend to, which keeps me very solitary. His big book is entirely printed at last, but the binding &c will still delay it some time. The illustrated edition of his poems by Cary & Hart will not be ready for 3 months. A cheap one is now circulating. We have some hopes of getting Jewett back to the North for a permanency. I should [p. 4 top] have once thought it impossible to content him here, but he looks at things with a soberer eye, & I hope will not sigh for the “flesh pots of Egypt” (quere Gombo?) if he does come. Sam & I have projecting great gardening projects & are impatient for milder weather to commence. We have barely green grass while you are in the flush of summer! My brother writes me of a dreary, rainy winter in Rome, & seems wholly reconciled to return to us this summer. The steamer is [p. 4 cross] expected to day so I shall keep my letter to tell you what news we have of my sisters movements.
[p. 1 cross] *Mr Chapman spoke to Sumner most warmly of James’ execution of his molars
Wednesday. The steamer is in but without our desired guests. They will come in the next if possible. I fortunately did not fuly expect them or shouldhave been sadly disappointed
Love from Henry Sam & Charlie
ADDRESSED: 25 / MRS JAMES GREENLEAF / CARE OF HARROD DARLING & CO. / NEW ORLEANS.

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