File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 18 October 1847 (5921f2b7-545b-4d31-8caa-8af36f8e9df3).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#026

Craigie House – Oct 18th 1847.
I was rejoiced, dearest, to hear you were so well, thro’ your two most welcome notes, & trust now you will bear bravely on to the end.
Since I wrote you my heart has been sorely tried – A young man, a native of St Kitts, who has been studying medicine at one of our colleges, came lately to my Fathers to offer to carry any thing to Mary, as he was to sail for her island in a few days. In asking him for any news thence, as we have none since the first letters now 3 month old & more, he said his mother wrote him of the death [p. 2] of Mrs Mackintosh’s baby. The fact was all he knew about it, - & thus are we left in this painful uncertainty as to which of the two younger it may be, (for they are both babies, & Angus was most likely to feel the change of climate while teething) & with utter ignorance of all particulars, - hearing merely from a stranger that our darling Mary is suffering among strangers, so far away from both her homes – How it will dim the glory of her beautiful island, & sadden all her future residence there, & sanctify & endear it too as no other spot of earth, where ever she may roam hereafter I long to fly to her & cannot [p. 3] even hear from her. Letters must have miscarried some where. This is her first own sorrow, as it were, & I am most anxious to know how she bears up under it – Fortunately the duties of her station will occupy her from dwelling too sadly upon it, but one cannot resign a portion of one’s very life, however young, without a pang which is most slow to heal.
As you say, these falling leaves may well recall our fallen friends of the last year, & to Stackpole’s sad death is now added Bryant’s equally untimely end. On Saturday I followed to Mt Auburn the remains of Mr Sumner, Har[p. 4] riets father, & there was no sadness in seeing the life-weary man lie down to rest under the golden leaves & light dust which fell upon his coffin. He sank away gently in his sleep, as the aged should, with no previous illness, but old age which had long undermined all his powers, but at his funeral I heard of John Bryant’s death which took place that very morning, & that indeed seemed grievous to bear – His mother has suffered so much, Mrs Lee also, & his wife has regained her lost child, as it were, but to lose her husband – He had such a thoroughly kind & hearty nature, so true, & manly, & good that a much greater man would be [first leaf missing, p. 5] less missed & mourned. Motley says the light of the club seems nearly gone with him & Stackpole, & in that group of friends, meeting so often; & keeping, for so many years, their relations unbroken, two such deaths in a year are a most melancholy sundering of association & interest.
Mrs Sumner is very cheerful & tranquil, but feels the loss of her daily care & life-long companion. He had only needed a nurse the day before, &, as I said, really died while asleep, sliding down to his grave without a jar to his wearied frame. You must pray that so your old father may glide away – with as little pain & struggle. [p. 6] I went in today to see Uncle Sam, who fell some time since on a piece of carpet, bringing his whole weight upon his knees, in a way to injure them very seriously. He is unable to move, & will not probably for some weeks, & it seems strange to see Mrs A- moving about so briskly, & nursing another for a trouble so akin to her seven years trial –
She, of course, is rendered more capable than ever for the office
Henry had a very kind note a steamer or two ago from Barry Cornwall, expressing a warm interest in Mary Ashburtons, & begging H. to give a happier sequel, from [p. 7] his own experience, to Hyperion, which, he says, he is so fond of as always to travel with it. He sent us a nice little edition of his own poems & most musical songs, which come nearer to the true intention of a song than almost any in the language.
We are reading Miss Pardue with much interest. Her history is gathered mainly from the many memoirs of the time, & is therefore racy with personal anecdote & the freshness of impressions [crossed out: made] taken on the spot
Hillard writes last from Milan He seems to have appreciated [p. 8] the unutterable glories of Switzerland & the Italian lakes, but suffers much from the discomforts of travelling in diligences & seeing such wretched populations, & on the whole, I think, has taken the foam off his enthusiasm by too long bottling. He writes to me as if viewing all things from No 4 Court St – thro’ a telescope, with a Boston east wind still sighing round him; instead, as I hoped, of bursting his fetters wholly & coming out quite a butterfly – “a youth light-hearted & content”.
The trees & vines have been beautiful but are fast dropping into their graves – almost as fast as men We are to have an English gardener to dig us a more spacious garden & hope next year to have our grounds more decent – Fare-well, beloved, in body & in spirit, & soon return to thy most loving
Fan-
[p. 1 cross] Kind remembrances to your household. Edward Motley has the typhus fever, but lightly.

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