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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 19 June 1839
Manuscript letter
St Catherines – Regent’s Park.
June 16th 1841.
I need not waste words to tell you, my darling, with what joy I welcomed your two dear letters, especially the first which allayed our alarm, or anxiety, about the tardy Britannia, (in which I fancied your brother Edward might be,) & after the President’s fate one’s faith in steam is somewhat undermined. It is sorely against my conscience to write you at all & I have almost resolved to forbid your reading my letters yourself as I certainly must, & with a magnanimity worthy ‘this martyr-age,’ your writing me by every packet. God knows I would resign much more than this pleasure to ensure their well-being of your precious eyes. & when I think of the needless length of my previous scrawls remorse clutches at my heart. I delight to think of you enjoying yourself so much as you must in ‘old Virginny’ with such very agreeable compagnons de voyage & I am sure it was a ‘special providence’ which set them moving at this time when good company & a journey of interest had become what Miss Sedgwick w’d call a ‘must have’ for you. Nature’s green-letter is a very different thing from printer’s devils black type & I expect to find you on my return ready for a winter campaign of literature. In a few days we bid adieu to London & its dying season, whose fading flowers are seen now behind post horses fast rushing to a wholesomer atmosphere to learn Nature’s secrets of eternal freshness & bloom, for her sturdy blossoms here put to shame these hot-house damsels of high degree. The crush of vehicles in Regents St has not much diminished apparently, but as Parliament breaks up in [p. 2] a few days there will be a general scattering. Mr Gray has picked up at his Hotel a good Irish story of an Irish bishop setting forth for the Continent with any quantity of daughters & trunks all of which (trunks I mean) he sent by an Irish servant to the steamboat wharf where he vainly awaited their arrival & finally, having paid his passage, chose to embark, trusting to the benevolence of ‘les braves Belges’ with genuine Hibernian insouciance – having with him for apparel only his coachman’s carpet-bag! The servant & the trunks being equally uninformed of their destination it is a curious problem in what lapse of time & chance they will re-encounter their respective owners, the poor Paddy probably surmising one steamer just as good as another & his worthy master known as well on the Continent as in ould Ireland. Mary longs to get fairly away from the sound of carriage wheels & the town-feeling but feels dismal, too, at leaving this pretty house, loved as Ronald’s birth-place & the only home she has had this side the water. It is being thrown adrift again where finally to anchor Heaven only knows & I wish it would vouchsafe us some glimpse of its prescience! I have got to love this nice cloister-garden behind our Chapel where I saunter daily, thinking of you, & the Chapel itself with its fine painted windows (dont read this atrocious chirography with your own eyes or I stop) well drilled chorister boys & pretty oaken pews, which tempt me to say my prayers there in spite of the stupidest preacher-; this quiet court with its ivy & Gothicness, the Park with its children, sheep & daisies, and, if Mary must live in London, I should like to believe this her perpetual abiding-place. We pass a week on Woolwich common that she may pick up enough strength for a longer excursion but I doubt if she will be capable of much travelling for she is sadly destitute of [crossed out: strength] energy at present & needs entire repose of body & mind to be any-thing like her former self. [p. 3] I have had more pain than pleasure thus far in being with her, on this acct, but hope to saver her much fatigue having an American sympathy with her constitution as no English person can. We have seen but few peope lately - & I had better reserve all account of those few for our home-chats. Harriet will tell you of my last pleasant parties at Lady Inglis’ & the Butlers. We have seen Carlyle again (who passed an ev’g here with Mrs B.) & talked with usual ‘bonhommie,’ tho’ he disturbed my rev’rence for Wordsworht by asserting how much he read & thought of his own verses à la Rogers. And Rachel we have seen again in a still better part when I will confess to the starting of more than one tear thro’ the force & nature of her acting. She has been giving readings at some Dukes & receiving bracelets from enthusiastic Duchesses as Taglioni did at St Petersburg. Tom accompanies Mr Gray to Paris for a 3 weeks absence from us & I envy a little his peep at its fascinations, but can’t think of boring his bachelor independance [sic] with my femininity, beside being unwilling to leave Mary. I was vastly inclined to get you a complete adornment of old lace, th’ other day, knowing your weakness on that point & rememb’ring a sort of half commission you gave for some, but the price ($50) staggered me so I await further instructions before I venture. If you would like Honiton lace or any kind of English manufacture & will take the trouble to send me the number of yards & the exact price you covet I will endeavor, before leaving the country, to satisfy yr taste. I have just got one a poplin gown for travelling to please you in color & a most quaker-like appearance I present therein! The shops are brilliant with pretty French things but I have not courage to encounter their Tittlebat-manners alone, tho’ I boldly marched into ‘Howell & James’ yesterday – which is not unlike invading a hollow square of infantry. I hesitate about getting you another bracelet of my poor locks; ordering one for Caroline A- I saw some exquisite designs (by a German) but all very expensive. I am interrupted by a call from Rogers.
[p. 4 bottom] June 17th Old Rogers came yesday for no less a purpose than to acquaint me he had the promise of a ticket to the last Almanacks for me, having been hunting up Lady Patronesses with the kindest diligence. Mrs Stevenson was too ill to chaperon me but put me under the care of Mr & Mrs Temple (sister she of Mrs Barker) who with a Mr & Mrs & Miss James & two or 3 brothers made an American phalanx. It was a sort of satisfaction to see so renowned a place & I was amused looking at so brilliant a ball-company tho’ there was less beauty than at our Assemblies on the whole, although some high bred features & figures which grow not out of this aristocratic atmosphere. The Marchioness of Londonderry sat in dignified state (a sort of refined [p. 4 top] Mrs Otis if that is not paradoxical) & I saw likewise the great heiress Miss Crutts – with a very plain red face not helped by a blue gown – the simplest dressed woman there. Also Mrs Gore the authoress, but Mr Rush – our secretary could not enlighten us much about the grandees. The music was delicious but the waltzing ungraceful with short jerky steps à la Stackpole. My American companions were highly facetious about the supper of rye bread & butter, tea & macaroons; nothing else, on the same principle I suppose that one has to use here such paper as this. The dressing was beautiful. the [p. 4 cross] influence of French milliners having wondrously increased her in 4 yrs. How I wish yr brother had been here, lately, to buy some nice original pictures which were sold so villainously cheap that Tom has been desperately miserable ever since because he did not try to purchase. I scolded Mr Gray for letting the loveliest Correggio slip thro’ his fin [p. 1 cross] gers, he professing to be in the vein for spending money in this way. A Count Pepoli, friend of Mariottu, has a fine gallery for sale & I wish the Athenaeum could be made to bargain for some of his Guidos. Tis shameful to try yr eyes so cruelly for such a stupid letter as this, mille pardons & with infinite love & good wishes
yr true friend
Fan –
Mary, Rob & Tom send much love. & Ronald returns yr kisses with interest.
Addressed: Miss Austin. / Care of Saml Austin Jr. Esq. / Boston. / Mass. U.S.A.
June 16th 1841.
I need not waste words to tell you, my darling, with what joy I welcomed your two dear letters, especially the first which allayed our alarm, or anxiety, about the tardy Britannia, (in which I fancied your brother Edward might be,) & after the President’s fate one’s faith in steam is somewhat undermined. It is sorely against my conscience to write you at all & I have almost resolved to forbid your reading my letters yourself as I certainly must, & with a magnanimity worthy ‘this martyr-age,’ your writing me by every packet. God knows I would resign much more than this pleasure to ensure their well-being of your precious eyes. & when I think of the needless length of my previous scrawls remorse clutches at my heart. I delight to think of you enjoying yourself so much as you must in ‘old Virginny’ with such very agreeable compagnons de voyage & I am sure it was a ‘special providence’ which set them moving at this time when good company & a journey of interest had become what Miss Sedgwick w’d call a ‘must have’ for you. Nature’s green-letter is a very different thing from printer’s devils black type & I expect to find you on my return ready for a winter campaign of literature. In a few days we bid adieu to London & its dying season, whose fading flowers are seen now behind post horses fast rushing to a wholesomer atmosphere to learn Nature’s secrets of eternal freshness & bloom, for her sturdy blossoms here put to shame these hot-house damsels of high degree. The crush of vehicles in Regents St has not much diminished apparently, but as Parliament breaks up in [p. 2] a few days there will be a general scattering. Mr Gray has picked up at his Hotel a good Irish story of an Irish bishop setting forth for the Continent with any quantity of daughters & trunks all of which (trunks I mean) he sent by an Irish servant to the steamboat wharf where he vainly awaited their arrival & finally, having paid his passage, chose to embark, trusting to the benevolence of ‘les braves Belges’ with genuine Hibernian insouciance – having with him for apparel only his coachman’s carpet-bag! The servant & the trunks being equally uninformed of their destination it is a curious problem in what lapse of time & chance they will re-encounter their respective owners, the poor Paddy probably surmising one steamer just as good as another & his worthy master known as well on the Continent as in ould Ireland. Mary longs to get fairly away from the sound of carriage wheels & the town-feeling but feels dismal, too, at leaving this pretty house, loved as Ronald’s birth-place & the only home she has had this side the water. It is being thrown adrift again where finally to anchor Heaven only knows & I wish it would vouchsafe us some glimpse of its prescience! I have got to love this nice cloister-garden behind our Chapel where I saunter daily, thinking of you, & the Chapel itself with its fine painted windows (dont read this atrocious chirography with your own eyes or I stop) well drilled chorister boys & pretty oaken pews, which tempt me to say my prayers there in spite of the stupidest preacher-; this quiet court with its ivy & Gothicness, the Park with its children, sheep & daisies, and, if Mary must live in London, I should like to believe this her perpetual abiding-place. We pass a week on Woolwich common that she may pick up enough strength for a longer excursion but I doubt if she will be capable of much travelling for she is sadly destitute of [crossed out: strength] energy at present & needs entire repose of body & mind to be any-thing like her former self. [p. 3] I have had more pain than pleasure thus far in being with her, on this acct, but hope to saver her much fatigue having an American sympathy with her constitution as no English person can. We have seen but few peope lately - & I had better reserve all account of those few for our home-chats. Harriet will tell you of my last pleasant parties at Lady Inglis’ & the Butlers. We have seen Carlyle again (who passed an ev’g here with Mrs B.) & talked with usual ‘bonhommie,’ tho’ he disturbed my rev’rence for Wordsworht by asserting how much he read & thought of his own verses à la Rogers. And Rachel we have seen again in a still better part when I will confess to the starting of more than one tear thro’ the force & nature of her acting. She has been giving readings at some Dukes & receiving bracelets from enthusiastic Duchesses as Taglioni did at St Petersburg. Tom accompanies Mr Gray to Paris for a 3 weeks absence from us & I envy a little his peep at its fascinations, but can’t think of boring his bachelor independance [sic] with my femininity, beside being unwilling to leave Mary. I was vastly inclined to get you a complete adornment of old lace, th’ other day, knowing your weakness on that point & rememb’ring a sort of half commission you gave for some, but the price ($50) staggered me so I await further instructions before I venture. If you would like Honiton lace or any kind of English manufacture & will take the trouble to send me the number of yards & the exact price you covet I will endeavor, before leaving the country, to satisfy yr taste. I have just got one a poplin gown for travelling to please you in color & a most quaker-like appearance I present therein! The shops are brilliant with pretty French things but I have not courage to encounter their Tittlebat-manners alone, tho’ I boldly marched into ‘Howell & James’ yesterday – which is not unlike invading a hollow square of infantry. I hesitate about getting you another bracelet of my poor locks; ordering one for Caroline A- I saw some exquisite designs (by a German) but all very expensive. I am interrupted by a call from Rogers.
[p. 4 bottom] June 17th Old Rogers came yesday for no less a purpose than to acquaint me he had the promise of a ticket to the last Almanacks for me, having been hunting up Lady Patronesses with the kindest diligence. Mrs Stevenson was too ill to chaperon me but put me under the care of Mr & Mrs Temple (sister she of Mrs Barker) who with a Mr & Mrs & Miss James & two or 3 brothers made an American phalanx. It was a sort of satisfaction to see so renowned a place & I was amused looking at so brilliant a ball-company tho’ there was less beauty than at our Assemblies on the whole, although some high bred features & figures which grow not out of this aristocratic atmosphere. The Marchioness of Londonderry sat in dignified state (a sort of refined [p. 4 top] Mrs Otis if that is not paradoxical) & I saw likewise the great heiress Miss Crutts – with a very plain red face not helped by a blue gown – the simplest dressed woman there. Also Mrs Gore the authoress, but Mr Rush – our secretary could not enlighten us much about the grandees. The music was delicious but the waltzing ungraceful with short jerky steps à la Stackpole. My American companions were highly facetious about the supper of rye bread & butter, tea & macaroons; nothing else, on the same principle I suppose that one has to use here such paper as this. The dressing was beautiful. the [p. 4 cross] influence of French milliners having wondrously increased her in 4 yrs. How I wish yr brother had been here, lately, to buy some nice original pictures which were sold so villainously cheap that Tom has been desperately miserable ever since because he did not try to purchase. I scolded Mr Gray for letting the loveliest Correggio slip thro’ his fin [p. 1 cross] gers, he professing to be in the vein for spending money in this way. A Count Pepoli, friend of Mariottu, has a fine gallery for sale & I wish the Athenaeum could be made to bargain for some of his Guidos. Tis shameful to try yr eyes so cruelly for such a stupid letter as this, mille pardons & with infinite love & good wishes
yr true friend
Fan –
Mary, Rob & Tom send much love. & Ronald returns yr kisses with interest.
Addressed: Miss Austin. / Care of Saml Austin Jr. Esq. / Boston. / Mass. U.S.A.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-009#010
U. S. National Park Service
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1011/002.001-009#010
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1841 (1011/002.001-009), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1841 (1011/002.001-009), (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
06/16/1841
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1841. (1011/002.001-009#010)
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
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