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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 15 November 1844
Manuscript letter
Cambridge. Nov 15th 1844.
Dearest Tom,
I hope this finds you in the most charming place in the world, & enjoying it to your heart’s content. Is end my thoughts after you but they fall into a bottomless well from which issues no echo – dame Truth is asleep. It is rather dismal this groping after you in the dark, without any clear notion as to your possible whereabouts. From Mrs Brooks’ eloquent accounts of Greece, & her picnics there with your friend Mrs Bracebridge I cannot help hoping you are bound [p. 2] thither, - but then Spain again, in the way of art, would fascinate you still more I think. Then Rome again – I dont [sic] wonder you are puzzled with all the world before you where to choose, but alas! No Eve to help you to a decision. I never discouraged your caging one of the sweet Nightingales if it lay in your power. Au contraire nothing would delight me more, but you know that already. I only hinted that those birds would not sing when transplanted to this country, as a joke. Dr Howe speaks of Miss Florence as a very extraordinary girl, & evidently thought you were in danger. À propos of singing we have just returned from [p. 3] hearing Phillips, the English singer, - astound our Lyceum with his powerful voice – The songs were interspersed with most amusing, self sufficient, would-be-fine-talk- that a certain class of John Bulls indulge in, but among our leathery skins it is always refreshing to see a vigorous physique like his. Get Emerson’s Essays if you can, & if you can overlook the Pantheism you will find some good shass in them – in his usual oracular sentences.
Yesterday we visited Marianne in her beautiful Waltham villa. She looked very well & I was happy to be on more intimate terms with Copley’s pretty things. They were married in church 10 days ago. Preble Motley is dead – that beautiful temple is fallen. His family must [p. 4] be disconsolate. Arnold Welles too is gone – a typhus fever carried him off leaving his Father without a support in his old age. Alex Longfellow is with us fresh from camping in the woods of the St Johns – Father I suppose will write you of the despair of the Whigs at Clays defeat. There is universal lamentation. After Tyler a Polk! The plagues of Egypt are upon us, but we console ourselves a little in having escaped the Bancroft as Governor. Henry hoped to write you but the printers give him hardly a leisure moment – He is upon the Italian. You have no idea of the transcending curl of Mrs Brooks’ lips in speaking of your hostess Mrs Bracebridge. Know all the noble women you can, & love them, but not all you can love! Good night & God bless you dearest.
thy loving Fan
Dearest Tom,
I hope this finds you in the most charming place in the world, & enjoying it to your heart’s content. Is end my thoughts after you but they fall into a bottomless well from which issues no echo – dame Truth is asleep. It is rather dismal this groping after you in the dark, without any clear notion as to your possible whereabouts. From Mrs Brooks’ eloquent accounts of Greece, & her picnics there with your friend Mrs Bracebridge I cannot help hoping you are bound [p. 2] thither, - but then Spain again, in the way of art, would fascinate you still more I think. Then Rome again – I dont [sic] wonder you are puzzled with all the world before you where to choose, but alas! No Eve to help you to a decision. I never discouraged your caging one of the sweet Nightingales if it lay in your power. Au contraire nothing would delight me more, but you know that already. I only hinted that those birds would not sing when transplanted to this country, as a joke. Dr Howe speaks of Miss Florence as a very extraordinary girl, & evidently thought you were in danger. À propos of singing we have just returned from [p. 3] hearing Phillips, the English singer, - astound our Lyceum with his powerful voice – The songs were interspersed with most amusing, self sufficient, would-be-fine-talk- that a certain class of John Bulls indulge in, but among our leathery skins it is always refreshing to see a vigorous physique like his. Get Emerson’s Essays if you can, & if you can overlook the Pantheism you will find some good shass in them – in his usual oracular sentences.
Yesterday we visited Marianne in her beautiful Waltham villa. She looked very well & I was happy to be on more intimate terms with Copley’s pretty things. They were married in church 10 days ago. Preble Motley is dead – that beautiful temple is fallen. His family must [p. 4] be disconsolate. Arnold Welles too is gone – a typhus fever carried him off leaving his Father without a support in his old age. Alex Longfellow is with us fresh from camping in the woods of the St Johns – Father I suppose will write you of the despair of the Whigs at Clays defeat. There is universal lamentation. After Tyler a Polk! The plagues of Egypt are upon us, but we console ourselves a little in having escaped the Bancroft as Governor. Henry hoped to write you but the printers give him hardly a leisure moment – He is upon the Italian. You have no idea of the transcending curl of Mrs Brooks’ lips in speaking of your hostess Mrs Bracebridge. Know all the noble women you can, & love them, but not all you can love! Good night & God bless you dearest.
thy loving Fan
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-014#030
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1844 (1011/002.001-014), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1844 (1011/002.001-014), (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
11/15/1844
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1844. (1011/002.001-014#030)
Public Can View
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 6:32:53 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 6:32:53 PM
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