File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 23 September 1856 (dafe9495-2180-4d8b-8b7e-087b364b0009).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-026#012

Cambridge Sep 23d 1856
Dearest friend,
What a cruel mischance it was that you should have been in Beacon St on Saturday, & I there too, so near you, without dreaming of your proximity! Harriot was so positive you had gone to Geneseo that I did not think to enquire if she were mistaken, & the stormy afternoon (as I only got there just in time for dinner) kept me completely housed, but if I had known it I should have [p. 2] rushed thro’ rain & thunder to see you, my darling. It troubles me greatly that your health should have so failed you this summer, after a winter of such perfect good looks [books?]. These slow fevers are wretched things, as I have lately felt, watching Erny this one, & the return of strength is so uncertain, and then this additional illness is too sad with your unceasing cares & fatigues of travelling &c which never seem to make any allowance for any possible mortal weakness. Ah! I wish you would give yourself, or your brothers, [p. 3] a good housekeeper, who could spare you at least half this fatigue. I was so disappointed, as I wrote you, to get no glimpse of you at your former visit to Boston, & I hope you enjoyed enough at Newport to compensate for that move.
I returned a week too soon from Nahant, &, from such change of air, have had a wretched cold, as have nearly all the children, besides being devoured by mosquitoes so that poor Edie & baby look, for all the world, like currant pie, but not of so good a kind as Jenny Wren affected. The house too [p. 4] is in dire confusion, the Library & study having been painted. I had to receive, the other day, in all the litter of the drawing room, blocked up with furniture, a Crimean hero, Mr. Wm. Eyre, now made commander of the forces in Canada, & being very tall, I perversely sat him, in my confusion, in the lowest chair in the room, greatly to the horror of Bishop Southgate doubtless, who was with him.
Mary has returned to London, from the Isle of Wight, having now sent every child to school. Tom is still with the Story’s, at a villa they took near Windsor, luxuriating in painting the beauties of the scenery & in frequent social meetings at the Sturgis’ who are near by. I saw much of Fanny Kemble & her interesting daughter at Nahant. She is full of all a mother’s anxiety for her happy settlement in life, but it seem [p. 1 cross] ed like a dream to see them together. They will be in Boston in November. I do hope, dearest so see something of you this winter. I shall wean my baby soon & that will give me more freedom—.
ever & ever
lovingly yrs
Fanny E.L.
I have not yet been able to get near the Motleys. Tom had them down to his place & feasted & enjoyed them greatly.
[p. 2 cross] Edward Bangs has gone out to marry Miss Hodgkinson & will bring her directly to his sister’s at Watertown I yesterday saw Aunt Sam’s little bird-cage of a house for the first time. It seems to break my past completely off & begin a new thread, but she seems very happy in it.
We have no thoughts of Europe at present. The children are a sufficient trouble at home. Henry’s knee is quite well & he walks again freely tho’ he still feels it.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; social life; family life; health and illness; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1856 (1011/002.001-026); (LONG-FileUnitName)