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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Reverend Samuel Longfellow, 31 August 1853
Manuscript letter
Nahant. Aug 31st 1853.
Dear Sam
For many weeks we have been hoping to see arrive your sermon on “the Word preached,” the extracts & commendations in the newspapers have only sharpened our impatience – when lo! yesterday in feeling at the bottom of a carpet-bag Henry brought from Cambridge about Commencement time it appeared, having been thrown in with other pamphlets & left there unknown to us all this time.
Having now read it I can [p. 2] no longer refrain from telling you how admirable it seems to me, how its clear, forcible style utters the Truth as the truth should be uttered in tones of authority & simplicity. The part, about the Word is very beautiful, & the whole is to me the best matter in the best words. I appreciate your style even better I think in print than in manuscript, & for preaching it could hardly be improved – it is so compact and earnest & rises to beauty so naturally, without inflation, & falls again so quietly to the even tread of the argument. I am very glad this was printed for it will [p. 3] make you more widely and worthily known than any subject less broadly treated & such a manly voice must be most grateful to many waiting & thirsting souls.
We remain here about a week longer & then resign our delicious leisure for home cares & duties. It has been a very happy summer to me, so quiet & peaceful, with the healthful exhilaration of so much beauty in sea & sky that I regret to close the volume. Annie has promised to come to us today to remain until Saturday, James leaving her at Lynn where we shall meet her & taking her back again when [p. 4] he returns. I hope she will not disappoint us again. We had only an hour’s glimpse of Mary on her way to Portland but hope to see her soon in Cambridge.
Hillard’s new book lies on our table & looks to be thoroughly well done, perhaps with almost too fine a style to be racy, but no doubt will most pleasantly retouch the fading frescos of past travel. I hear from Newport that Mrs Bullard has a son & that Mr Norton is failing fast – “the old Moon with the new Moon in its arms” – Those inevitable contrasts which seem to give Life its life – the ebb & flow. I have also to thank you, I suppose, for a beautifully bound copy of ‘Thalatta’ which is seldom out of our hand – it gauges every sea-change. My sister writes me from Tenby a Welsh watering-place & Tom from Dieppe a French one [p. 1 cross] so we make a kind of triangle with nothing but see between Mr Mountford often comes skipping down from his piazza as we pass. He seems very happy in his wedded life & his wife also.
Annie has arrived & sends her love to you & hopes to see you soon in Portland. With Henry’s love
Yrs affly
Fanny E.L.
Dear Sam
For many weeks we have been hoping to see arrive your sermon on “the Word preached,” the extracts & commendations in the newspapers have only sharpened our impatience – when lo! yesterday in feeling at the bottom of a carpet-bag Henry brought from Cambridge about Commencement time it appeared, having been thrown in with other pamphlets & left there unknown to us all this time.
Having now read it I can [p. 2] no longer refrain from telling you how admirable it seems to me, how its clear, forcible style utters the Truth as the truth should be uttered in tones of authority & simplicity. The part, about the Word is very beautiful, & the whole is to me the best matter in the best words. I appreciate your style even better I think in print than in manuscript, & for preaching it could hardly be improved – it is so compact and earnest & rises to beauty so naturally, without inflation, & falls again so quietly to the even tread of the argument. I am very glad this was printed for it will [p. 3] make you more widely and worthily known than any subject less broadly treated & such a manly voice must be most grateful to many waiting & thirsting souls.
We remain here about a week longer & then resign our delicious leisure for home cares & duties. It has been a very happy summer to me, so quiet & peaceful, with the healthful exhilaration of so much beauty in sea & sky that I regret to close the volume. Annie has promised to come to us today to remain until Saturday, James leaving her at Lynn where we shall meet her & taking her back again when [p. 4] he returns. I hope she will not disappoint us again. We had only an hour’s glimpse of Mary on her way to Portland but hope to see her soon in Cambridge.
Hillard’s new book lies on our table & looks to be thoroughly well done, perhaps with almost too fine a style to be racy, but no doubt will most pleasantly retouch the fading frescos of past travel. I hear from Newport that Mrs Bullard has a son & that Mr Norton is failing fast – “the old Moon with the new Moon in its arms” – Those inevitable contrasts which seem to give Life its life – the ebb & flow. I have also to thank you, I suppose, for a beautifully bound copy of ‘Thalatta’ which is seldom out of our hand – it gauges every sea-change. My sister writes me from Tenby a Welsh watering-place & Tom from Dieppe a French one [p. 1 cross] so we make a kind of triangle with nothing but see between Mr Mountford often comes skipping down from his piazza as we pass. He seems very happy in his wedded life & his wife also.
Annie has arrived & sends her love to you & hopes to see you soon in Portland. With Henry’s love
Yrs affly
Fanny E.L.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-023#019
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1853 (1011/002.001-023), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1853 (1011/002.001-023), (LONG-FileUnitName)
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Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Number Catalog : LONG 20257
Title: Finding Aid to the Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow (1817-1861) Papers, 1825-1961 (bulk dated: 1832-1861)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
2016-01-30
08/31/1853
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1853. (1011/002.001-023#019)
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Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:33:39 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:33:39 PM
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