File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Matilda Lieber, 17 January 1852 (a0468036-2059-41d0-8e1e-b5a3ff53d60e).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#001

Cambridge Jany 17th 1852.
My dear Matilda,
I intended to have sent you our New Year greeting before the month was half so old, but with even my few correspondents such good resolves are not so easily accomplished. I received a long & charming letter from you some time since - & entered warmly into all your anxieties & disappointments, hopes & fears concerning your children. As you say I know not yet half the care of boys – but I appreciate the blessing of having them still children - & have no impatience to see them men. Mr & Mrs Sidney Brooks were here lately & we talked much of you, and [p. 2] Annie Maillard, who is now with Julia, was asking me the other night, in a pretty ball-room, where she was looking charmingly with a wreath of gold & green in her hair, of you & yours – so you see you are not forgotten by your northern friends. Your nephew Mr Lomnitz whom you saw in the autumn also pleasantly reminded me of you – having something in his face probably of his mother which resembled her sister. We have read several things lately of Liebers with great satisfaction – the paper on Colonization - &, in the summer, upon the Great Exhibition, which was peculiarly fine in expression & feeling, and we have to thank him for his address to the students which is also excellent. The English becomes constantly a stronger more av- [p. 3] ailable weapon in his hands – a Toledo blade as flexible as powerful.
Has the “Kossuth fever” reached your isolated State? Probably not, nor in Boston has it any violence, but I confess to a warmer interest in the hero-prophet & his cause. Not that I think we can help him, as he desires, unless by earnest sympathy & a protest (if it would only be heeded) but as an historical fact I think his coming here very beautiful & significant, & the ardent faith of the man & his untiring devotion to his country excite my truest enthusiasm. That our people cannot feel a generous interest in another country without our miserable politicians using it for party purposes is to be sure humiliating enough, and shows how far a real Republic is from an ideal one. The very words he utters, “Freedom” & “Justice” seem to raise a panic at the South, which is beyond any northern censure & is sad enough to see. [p. 4] Sumner writes us there is a magnetism in his presence which accounts for the phrenzy he excites. He (S.) finds Washington pleasant eno’ socially, but likes politics & politicians no better on further acquaintance. I hope Lieber likes the “Golden Legend.” He is one of the few who can understand it thoroughly, & will not [crossed out: possibly] make the poor author responsible (as some foolish critics do) for the manners & feelings of the Middle Ages. He doubtless knows the old German legend from which the story was taken. We have sad, sad news from Egypt of the death of Mrs Murray – Elisabeth Wadsworth – only married a year, after so many years waiting, & then to perish by the sacred Nile far from home & friends! Poor Emmeline will be heart-broken, she was so fond of her & with good reason, for she was a most lovely person & the admiration of all who knew her. Sam Austin arrived just after her death at Cairo. She had been safely delivered of a boy but died from exhaustion afterward. You must have heard her romantic story, her long attachment to Murray, his constancy & their accidental meeting in England which ended in their marriage last Xmas. From Mary I hear monthly. She & her children were well & had [p. 5] before the summer remarkably well. Ronny is now getting beyond a Governess & she is thinking of taking him to England for a school. She finds her life at Antigua not too dull, having many pleasant families upon their estates there, & many interests in the way of schools, hospitals &c. But her health cannot gain in such a climate, & I hope someday Mackintosh will have a better appointment.
We have just entered upon our vacation & feel the relief it affords. We drove in a sleigh yesterday (for we are buried in snow – what a winter!) to South Boston to see Annie Maillard & found her sweet & gentle as ever, her little girl grown large & stout & more like her father than mother. Julia has fine children, & teaches them herself in a little building the Dr had built in the garden below where the schoolroom opens into a grapery & bowling alley. She looks well, but misses her delightful winter in Rome last year where she was the centre of attraction to many accomplished foreigners. Did you hear last summer of the sudden death [p. 6] of Matilda Sidhof? A sad thing for her parents. We saw her brother often at Nahant who is still the tutor at Mr Amory’s & much liked. My children have been remarkably well this winter & have grown stronger than when you saw them. The boys are in exuberant spirits always & very happy together at school & at play – lolling in the snow & dashing down every declinity on their sleds with great glee. Little Alice is a great pet – very bright & lively – with very expressive blue eyes. She now runs about freely & is on a constant voyage of discovery. I hope your boys are well & happily employed. I was disappointed to know you had been so near us this summer & we had not met. I so wished you could have come to Nahant – where we had a very pleasant sojourn. Lizzie Prescotts engagement to James Lawrence (son of Abbott) is the last news. I suppose Hillard writes you all I omit –
With kind regards to Lieber & love to the boys
ever affly yrs
Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; new year; holidays; subject; social life; family life; events; death; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1852 (1011/002.001-022); (LONG-FileUnitName)