File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 31 December 1856 (af883618-4f8a-4e5d-8ad2-c1bd4cf99b14).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-026#019

Cambridge Dec 31th 1856.
Dear Mary,
A happy New Year to you all, & may it bring you both better health than the last! I should like to think of you now in some sunny, southern scene, driving about in a balmy air & living in it all day, but I dare say it would be dull to you, & especially to Robert, & if London society is so much more attractive than life elsewhere, why, no doubt you would not get the good from any place you were not happy in.
I am so sorry Tom sent you my letter with that foolish story ab- [p. 2] out Hurlburt in it, which I only wrote him thinking H. was to return to Europe, & afterward intended to erase it. Well, it is a lesson to me to be more careful. I write you both so the same things, usually taking the Boston steamer, that it is quite unnecessary to exchange letters. But he shall have none this time, for I write in great haste – Charley having a feverish attack, which keeps him in bed, & he does not like to be left alone. I feared at first, there was so much sore-throat, that he was to have a renewal of scarletania (which is raging in Boston) but, fortunately, the Doctor thinks not. He had just got thro’ his Xmas holy days. A tool chest from 39 gave him great ex [p. 3] tasy, as he has a great mechanical turn, - & had been constructing new bird cages for his Canaries.
I am thankful it is nothing too, on Hatty’s account, as I have promised her a “twelfth night” party, & we hope to have a merry time.
One boat of the Lyman’s has anchored at Bordeaux & in it the Strongs (Mrs Strong’s husband’s mother & sister you saw at Newport) but, as Sumner had the command of another boat, there is not much cheer in it for those here. We had a very quiet Xmas at home, enjoying the children’s joy in their Santa Claus offerings & other gifts.
[p. 4] Miss Davie had great merry makings at the Tudors. I shall give her your Antigua news when I see her. I see good old Kenyon is gone. Many here will most affectionately remember his genial, generous hospitality & kindness to Americans. Frank Gray is just dying, very serene in mind, & doing kind things every day. Emmeline has a great dinner to-day, for the Motleys, which we were to go to but one of her women having scarlet fever we declined. Mrs John E Thayer her first great ball in the evg. The Assembly New Year’s eve, & so the gaiety is fairly begun! Mrs Howe’s new poems are out – full of power & feeling, but not, to me, satisfactory. Aurora Leigh has eclipsed them too utterly. I am reading Kane [p. 1 cross] to the boys which is very interesting. The discovery of that northern sea is most curious & will I fear tempt the Arctic enthusiasts to new perils & sufferings. Strange they do not try the east side of Greenland. ‘Dred’ seems to have been prophetic of the insurrections in the West which will only bring more misery in the poor enslaved. But what heroism those Black Brutes’ show! One, or more, lashed to death rather than betray their friends. Sumner says when he was there he was urged (but declined) [p. 2 cross] to visit this very factory, where it broke out, as a proof of perfect negro content & blessedness!
[p. 3 cross] What a letter Landor seems to have written Emerson! I met the latter in the toy-shop Saturday & he told me of it. I have since seen extracts in the English papers. I wish I knew how to send your chicks some Xmas remembrances – Best love to Robert.
Yr affte
Fanny E.L.

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