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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 21 June 1853
Manuscript letter
Cragie House. 21st June
1853.
Dearest Tom
We were quite disappointed to get nothing from you by last steamer, to know yr summer plans &c. Perhaps you are now cooling your imagination under Alpine glaciers & bracing your nerves by mountain air, as effectual nearly as a magnetic stimulus, but wherever you are I trust the cure goes on, & you feel renewed in spirits & life.
We are melting at present with intense heat, & can hardly bear the confinement of the house, breakfast & sup on the piazza & enjoy there the glorious moonlights of this season. We had [p. 2] the other day a farewell dinner for Hawthorne – with Emerson, Lowell, Clough Norton & Sam for guests, & very pleasant it was. The new Consul looks quite radiant for him, & feels no doubt the cares of life lightened for some time. He is to give us in the autumn another one of his charming mythological tales, the old gold in a new mould. Bright will be a good friend to him at Liverpool & is looking out for him. Another new Consul Mitchell has just married one of the fair Pringles, the tall one, & carries her to Venice where he can write “Reveries in a Gondola” tho’ not by a bachelor. Her papa writes to mine for letters, so I suggest Mr Sloane as an amiable one [p. 3] to venture on such a liberty with, but I hope you will see them somewhere & be civil.
Felton writes Henry from the Scotch lakes of a “Beautiful Unknown” he met there who much lauded the American poet without knowing she was addressing a friend & countryman.
I have not had the heart to write you before of poor Susan Bigelow’s sad death, & suppose you have heard the particulars from others. Nothing new is discovered It is one of those painful mysteries we had better not too curiously examine, a latent family disease probably suddenly developing itself. It is strange, after taking the fatal draught, she composedly told her husband without apparently any idea of what she had done. His only re- [p. 4] source, (as unfortunately no stomach pump was procurable at Woburn where she was) was to administer ether which spared her the agony of such a death & the consciousness of her sad act. She was perfectly happy I belief in her marriage but had lately been restless - & depressed from physical causes. Poor Mrs Perkins will feel it much as do her many friends – Her bright, fresh spirit & warm heart gone from us take much sunshine with them. It must have been a painful shock to you dear Tom. I felt much for you in receiving so much bad news, this coming so soon after Uncle Charles’ death.
Harriot has taken yr old room for a dressing-room, papa wishing to come down stairs & she has no room (for yr bedstead & wished to send it to me but as I suppose you would desire to put it up in town somewhere do not like the responsibility of the transportation. I can harbor it without putting it up if necessary [p. 1 cross] as Paul would make you pay for the keeping. Please send us yr wishes about it & yr other things.
She goes tomorrow to Newport. We to Nahant on 5th July probably. Em’s brother & wife have come to reason & taken a farm at Dedham -. Very pleasant for her. Maria has gone to Niagara with the Hodgkinsons. He is much troubled at his daughters fancy. H’s love
Yr ever affte
Fanny –
1853.
Dearest Tom
We were quite disappointed to get nothing from you by last steamer, to know yr summer plans &c. Perhaps you are now cooling your imagination under Alpine glaciers & bracing your nerves by mountain air, as effectual nearly as a magnetic stimulus, but wherever you are I trust the cure goes on, & you feel renewed in spirits & life.
We are melting at present with intense heat, & can hardly bear the confinement of the house, breakfast & sup on the piazza & enjoy there the glorious moonlights of this season. We had [p. 2] the other day a farewell dinner for Hawthorne – with Emerson, Lowell, Clough Norton & Sam for guests, & very pleasant it was. The new Consul looks quite radiant for him, & feels no doubt the cares of life lightened for some time. He is to give us in the autumn another one of his charming mythological tales, the old gold in a new mould. Bright will be a good friend to him at Liverpool & is looking out for him. Another new Consul Mitchell has just married one of the fair Pringles, the tall one, & carries her to Venice where he can write “Reveries in a Gondola” tho’ not by a bachelor. Her papa writes to mine for letters, so I suggest Mr Sloane as an amiable one [p. 3] to venture on such a liberty with, but I hope you will see them somewhere & be civil.
Felton writes Henry from the Scotch lakes of a “Beautiful Unknown” he met there who much lauded the American poet without knowing she was addressing a friend & countryman.
I have not had the heart to write you before of poor Susan Bigelow’s sad death, & suppose you have heard the particulars from others. Nothing new is discovered It is one of those painful mysteries we had better not too curiously examine, a latent family disease probably suddenly developing itself. It is strange, after taking the fatal draught, she composedly told her husband without apparently any idea of what she had done. His only re- [p. 4] source, (as unfortunately no stomach pump was procurable at Woburn where she was) was to administer ether which spared her the agony of such a death & the consciousness of her sad act. She was perfectly happy I belief in her marriage but had lately been restless - & depressed from physical causes. Poor Mrs Perkins will feel it much as do her many friends – Her bright, fresh spirit & warm heart gone from us take much sunshine with them. It must have been a painful shock to you dear Tom. I felt much for you in receiving so much bad news, this coming so soon after Uncle Charles’ death.
Harriot has taken yr old room for a dressing-room, papa wishing to come down stairs & she has no room (for yr bedstead & wished to send it to me but as I suppose you would desire to put it up in town somewhere do not like the responsibility of the transportation. I can harbor it without putting it up if necessary [p. 1 cross] as Paul would make you pay for the keeping. Please send us yr wishes about it & yr other things.
She goes tomorrow to Newport. We to Nahant on 5th July probably. Em’s brother & wife have come to reason & taken a farm at Dedham -. Very pleasant for her. Maria has gone to Niagara with the Hodgkinsons. He is much troubled at his daughters fancy. H’s love
Yr ever affte
Fanny –
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-023#010
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
06/21/1853
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1853. (1011/002.001-023#010)
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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 5:35:00 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:35:00 PM
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