Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-015#003

Cambridge – Jany 30th 1845
Naughty little Tom,
Such has been your appellation ever since Judkins arrived bringing naught from you – ever since the steamer before his arrived bringing naught. Not a line since you left Paris had reached us, whatever you may have written & committed to the tender mercies of bankers. I have been partially tho’ lonely enough, comforted however by hearing of you from divers quarters. Mrs Eliot informed me that you had safely reached Marseilles, & Mary Dwight stopped me at Cape Hatteras a few days since, to tell me Sarah Cleveland mentioned seeing you in Rome. But this is meagre satisfaction when I am longing to know from yourself how Italy opens upon you this third time, what new figures are woven upon that old melancholy tapestry, in which every thread is a ghost, & what pleasant chats you are having with them, both the living figures & ghosts, through the long sunny days & deep blue nights. Pray write us more frequently, darling, about every thing & every body you see.
We are sliding through the winter on a perpetual [p. 2] thaw; a very pleasant kind of sled with the feet well raised. But a week since we had a magnificent winter spectacle – The frozen rain remained upon the trees many days & in the brilliant sunlight outshone Aladdin’s garden utterly – I walked thro’ Mount Auburn & never saw such a magical scene the stubbornest limbs were bowed by the weight into graceful arches & the smaller trees were fountains of diamonds & rubies. It is usually you know the enchantment of a few hours only, but the weather remaining cold the ice at last fell rattling off. We longed for you the other day to help us do justice to a royal Xmas hasty Judkins presented papa. Its dimensions were worthy of the Roi d’Yvette & from it issued an aroma which I cannot attempt to describe, but which you can faintly imagine when I assure you it contained turkey, hare, pheasant, grouse, truffles, tongue et cetera! Harriet has lovely Lizzy Allen & not lovely, but sensible, Miss Briggs, the Governors daughter, & young, rosy-cheeked Pringle of Charleston staying with her at present – the Capt was present of course, & beside ourselves Ned Austin; we all dined liberally rom it, yet did not see the bottom. It was a veritable John Bull Xmas production – a carol seemed to issue from every bill it contained. These juvenile visitors make the house quite gay – beaux & bouquets pour in as I remember them to have don ‘long time ago.’ Allyne [p. 3] Otis praises & waltzes with Lizzy which she seems to think a great honor. I hope her little head wont get twisted the wrong way by so much attention. I confess my naughtiness in not writing to you by the last steamer & thereby omitting to announce the last family news. the engagement of Emily Warren to Joe Appleton which I suppose you have heard before now from some one else. If you have doubted it, & with good reason, I can confirm it as true She is 6 years his senior but spiritual affinities have naught to do with time, & their church & sunday [sic] school made this match as so many others. She is an excellent girl, & very shrewd withal, - so Joe must conceal something more under his grave exterior th[an] we have ever been able to discover, lacking the div[ining] rod, perhaps. Harriet gave a handsome party lately for Mrs. Webster. Little Em appeared there in black velvet which became her charmingly. The Crawfords are with the Howes & all dined with us last week. Crawford is modelling an equestrian Washington to offer to Congress but of course they will select the stone chopper Italian’s, who is our evil genius, if he can claim the name in any way. We had quite a nervous scene in Beacon St some time since – Mr Homer’s house caught fire upon the roof & smoked away alarmingly. We felt rather anxious for Uncle Sam’s tho’ it was uninjured, tho’ Mr Homer’s was deluged with muddy water. Some one found the poor man sitting in his cloak hours after, surveying his tarnished splendor [p. 4 bottom] & trembling with excitement, perhaps fear of Madame’s despair who was in N. York at the time. We find Greene has sent the Minerva after all, so please pay him, & we will send you, thro’ papa, the sum as soon as you inform us what it is. What do I owe you for the stockings Wadsworth brought? No bill appeared with them except that Bill – a large one I confess. You will see by the papers nothing but Texas brooding like a nightmare upon our horizon. Yesterday Boston protested against it – a pronouncement which I hope may ins [p. 4 top] pire something good – for sometimes a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, & this is the most indigestible morcel that was ever crammed down a nation’s throat. Willis has descended to a daily paper, & Sumner has sent it out to us regularly, but it polluted our pure air with such a New York malaria that we discard it. He undertakes to defend the Tartuffe Bishop Onderdonk, - who has been suspended, lately, for immoralities – the second Bishop of the name! It is mournful to think of the old age of such a [p. 1 cross] chiffonnier as Willis. Stupid & insolvent. John Bull refuses to believe in Miss Martineau’s magnetism. Mary says.
Henry sends much love to you & will write by the next steamer. He is now at work on Portuguese poetry – the last part of the book, thank Heaven & the last sentence he wrote, just now, is about a lover’s complaints being written on a poplar tree that they might grow, with the tree, above the reach of vulgar [crossed out: eyes] ideas. Lovering is engaged to a tall Miss Taylor of Dorchester.
Poor Alex Inglis is almost given up for lost in a ship to Havana. Good bye dearest. Many kisses from Charlie & from yr loving
Fanny.
Iasign is very anxious to know if you intend going to Constantinople because if so he will be most happy to give you good letters there. Fail not to wind that golden Home which will unlock more enchantment than Orlando’s.
ADDRESSED: T. G. APPLETON ESQ.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; holidays; christmas; subject; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1845 (1011/002.001-015); (LONG-FileUnitName)