Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#004

Cambridge March 1st 1848
Dearest Mary,
This first day of Spring is like a joyful herald of your approach, the news of which caused great rejoicings among us, & I tho’ I have valiantly tried not to put entire faith in it, I find my mind filled with charming pictures of you all under my roof. Charley is greatly interested in ships & sailor-boys & is anticipating eagerly the stories “cousin Ronny” will tell him about them. I hope this will find you on the point of getting ready, and though I truly sympathise with Robert for [p. 2] the loss of “all his pretty ones,” yet trust his conviction that it is best they should go will support him bravely thro’ it. In such a climate as that the summer should be a long siesta, & government itself go to sleep, & then he could steal away too. What a pity it can’t be managed as in the fairy-tale, the slumber lasting six months instead of a hundred years –
He writes you incline to Berkshire – perhaps you will like the sea-side better, but all that you can settle when arrived better – I shall claim you for June at least.
Night before last I was at a [p. 3] very splendid ball given at the Tremont House by Mr Theodore Lyman for his daughter Cora, (the only one I have been to this winter) & so many faces kindled with pleasure while speaking of yr coming, beginning with Wm Bootts & ending with Mrs Wiggin’s whose diamonds glistened & glowed as she warmed with the topic.
Miss Sedgwick has been some weeks in Boston, & she rejoices with me most fervently. She loves you as her own flesh & blood & that, in her case, is saying much. Emmeline is still in Boston & takes great delight in her little Austin, now [p. 4] two months old & more. He is a droll-looking little fellow, but I think will improve as he grows, as he has fine eyes & a very knowing look like Sam’s. She has recently lost her good, old Father, who died most peacefully, with three of his sons at home, & Emmeline to nurse him & her baby to enliven his last days. It could not have been ordered more happily, & she feels it so – having long feared she might be away when his last summons came. Wadsworth is pretty well, but has still some very insane notions, especially about religion. He has written a book full of them, & we greatly fear he will contrive & get it printed. Strange fantasy [p. 5, numbered “2”] for him to turn author! We have some sad family news to send you. Frank Appleton is now in the Charlestown Hospital! I wrote you, I believe, of the strangely torpid state he was in, which they thought, at first, purely physical, but there is great reason to fear his brain is materially weakened. His mind seemed literally to stand still, - he would stand hours gazing into a shop-window, for instance, forgetting to move on, as in a stupor, & other stranger things – Poor Uncle & Aunt Wm what a series of blows they have received in their children. His charming wife too – what a blank is her future – [p. 6] In addition to this, we have been saddened by the melancholy state of Julia Appleton’s health. We fear she is sinking under consumption - & will soon leave her five, little children motherless. Mr Webster has just heard, too, of the death of his son Edward who was an Officer in Mexico & perished [??] a fever there. The death of John Quincy Adams in the Capitol was a solemn & striking ending of his eventful life – Just after pronouncing an emphatic “no” against the war he fell from his seat - & “with his harness on his back” sank to the only repose he has ever [p. 7] known. He was a glorious old man – so energetic for the right to the last - & seemed the last fruit of a better generation. While upon such mournful subjects I will mention that on the 22nd (Washington’s birthday) the day before he died I had a little cross given me by Professor Horsford made of Washington’s coffin.
We have had a very quiet vacation. Henry was ill for some weeks, or rather kept his room on account of a surgical operation to suppress a varicose vein, brought on by too much standing, & we were only enlivened by occasional visits from Tom & Sumner. I was very [p. 8] anxious last week about my little Erny, who is a fragile little flower. He was found in his crib in convulsions, but as the doctor discovered they were brought on by indigestion & not teething I hope, with care, to escape another. I have not given him food nourishing enough I fear – tho’ he has been used to eggs too. Meat they have never had & Charley is better without it.
Little Fan can almost walk alone & says ‘papa’ very well. I think she will look like you. Mrs Lieber talks of passing the summer at Newton to put her Norman in an excellent German school there, & it will be a kind of poetical justice if we all meet there again. The Dr is in despair because your ring was stolen from him in a steamboat. He is undertaking to write English poetry which is a pity. Tom has a long letter from Mrs Wedg
[p. 1 cross] word, announcing her safe return & improved health. Hillard writes from Rome where I hope he will see Florence Nightingale who is there with Mrs Bracebridge. Uncle Sam is still as contented as a sage in his arm-chair & the rest of the family are well. I wish I could take your ship up in my hand, or get some amiable Genius to do so, & bring you here at once. May all things favor you! With love to R ever thy aff Fan
[p. 3 cross] Charley Follen longs to see you – He says he has such pleasant recollections of you I was half tempted to ask him if he remembered his naughty behavior during the German lessons.
ENDORSED: FANNY / – MARCH. 1848. –

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; family life; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1848 (1011/002.001-018); (LONG-FileUnitName)