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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 1 October 1852
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Oct 1st 1852
Dearest Emmeline,
Mary returned to me yesterday & we are both thinking much of you now that Murray is with you. The pleasure of knowing him face to face will be some consolation for the painful images his presence must evoke & to find your warm heart there will soften to him the thronging memories of the spot. I long to hear from you of your meeting & how you both bear this new trial.
We are hoping to see you in Boston in November, & I look forward to this winter as holding forth one great delight in bring- [p. 2] ing you once more near me. Mary too will be here, with us probably a great part of it. She would have much enjoyed a visit to you, & thought quite seriously of it, but the lateness of the season deterred her. She had great satisfaction in her Lenox & Stockbridge sojourn among the kind Sedgwicks. They were dreadfully anxious about Theodore’s child, expecting to hear every day of its death, but the last accounts were better. Think of poor Mrs James Amory losing 3 children in as many weeks! The last being the beautiful boy Harold with his fair Saxon curls – also her only little girl.
This autumnal weather is very golden with us & I enjoy long walks [p. 3] in the bracing air. The children are in exuberant spirits & are most happy in the return of their cousins. Mrs Burns of New York, looking as young & pretty as ever, is here at our Hotel having brought her boys to College. She will pass the winter in Boston. Boston waked up from its summer sleep to entertain the Baring, Lyells & Pringles but they have all gone & the gaiety with them. I was at a pretty party at papa’s & found Lady Lyell as charming as ever, & “Sir Charles” rather more willing to admire human faces as well as stone ones.
I suppose your brother Sam has arrived by yesterday’s steamer tho’ I can’t find his name among the passengers names – but there is a Mr Hustin which is doubtless he. I am afraid he hardly gave time enough to England, but we shall be glad [p. 4] to welcome him back. Tom has been at home but is off again for N. York & the Hudson. The Howadji writes me from Newport of their later doings there – of Sartigi’s marriage & the bal masque at Mr Gibbes, where the ladies (not the gentlemen) really went in masks & dominoes & were very clever, & after all had unmasked at supper the excitement occasioned by a new mask which could not be discovered but was thought to be a man. Afterwards it turned out to be Mrs Julius Pringle who was very brilliant, & well repelled the rather rude advances of the gentlemen. Mr Curtis is thought to be engaged, but as Tom is in the secret I believe he is only about to be – to Miss Eliza Winthrop, a fresh, good-natured N. York damsel, attractive from her grace & amiability, but not quite a fair match for him. Mrs Howe came here with her children to celebrate Elsie’s 2d birthday & I went to her grape-hung villa by the sea to celebrate Flossy’s 7th – but we [p. 1 cross] cannot often meet. I hope yr children have kept well thro’ this trying season.
With kindest regards to Mrs James
ever yr faithful
Fanny E.L
Mary sends much love – Henry also.
Dearest Emmeline,
Mary returned to me yesterday & we are both thinking much of you now that Murray is with you. The pleasure of knowing him face to face will be some consolation for the painful images his presence must evoke & to find your warm heart there will soften to him the thronging memories of the spot. I long to hear from you of your meeting & how you both bear this new trial.
We are hoping to see you in Boston in November, & I look forward to this winter as holding forth one great delight in bring- [p. 2] ing you once more near me. Mary too will be here, with us probably a great part of it. She would have much enjoyed a visit to you, & thought quite seriously of it, but the lateness of the season deterred her. She had great satisfaction in her Lenox & Stockbridge sojourn among the kind Sedgwicks. They were dreadfully anxious about Theodore’s child, expecting to hear every day of its death, but the last accounts were better. Think of poor Mrs James Amory losing 3 children in as many weeks! The last being the beautiful boy Harold with his fair Saxon curls – also her only little girl.
This autumnal weather is very golden with us & I enjoy long walks [p. 3] in the bracing air. The children are in exuberant spirits & are most happy in the return of their cousins. Mrs Burns of New York, looking as young & pretty as ever, is here at our Hotel having brought her boys to College. She will pass the winter in Boston. Boston waked up from its summer sleep to entertain the Baring, Lyells & Pringles but they have all gone & the gaiety with them. I was at a pretty party at papa’s & found Lady Lyell as charming as ever, & “Sir Charles” rather more willing to admire human faces as well as stone ones.
I suppose your brother Sam has arrived by yesterday’s steamer tho’ I can’t find his name among the passengers names – but there is a Mr Hustin which is doubtless he. I am afraid he hardly gave time enough to England, but we shall be glad [p. 4] to welcome him back. Tom has been at home but is off again for N. York & the Hudson. The Howadji writes me from Newport of their later doings there – of Sartigi’s marriage & the bal masque at Mr Gibbes, where the ladies (not the gentlemen) really went in masks & dominoes & were very clever, & after all had unmasked at supper the excitement occasioned by a new mask which could not be discovered but was thought to be a man. Afterwards it turned out to be Mrs Julius Pringle who was very brilliant, & well repelled the rather rude advances of the gentlemen. Mr Curtis is thought to be engaged, but as Tom is in the secret I believe he is only about to be – to Miss Eliza Winthrop, a fresh, good-natured N. York damsel, attractive from her grace & amiability, but not quite a fair match for him. Mrs Howe came here with her children to celebrate Elsie’s 2d birthday & I went to her grape-hung villa by the sea to celebrate Flossy’s 7th – but we [p. 1 cross] cannot often meet. I hope yr children have kept well thro’ this trying season.
With kindest regards to Mrs James
ever yr faithful
Fanny E.L
Mary sends much love – Henry also.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#023
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1852 (1011/002.001-022), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1852 (1011/002.001-022), (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
10/01/1852
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1852. (1011/002.001-022#023)
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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 5:37:27 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:37:27 PM
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