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Fanny Longfellow to Tom Appleton, November 1843
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Nov 1843.
Dear Tom
I think you have decided wisely to let well alone & enjoy your winter comfortably in Paris instead of returning to shiver & yawn in Boston. Still, I could not but await with anxiety the steamer’s arrival, desiring, so much, to welcome you to our hearthstone. Mary writes that she thought of coming home for the winter, but has decided, wisely also, to remain in England. I am very sorry she feels twinges of home sickness, tho’ it is most natural, especially in such a gloomy winter climate as she is now in, but as I have not room for her yet under my own roof we should not have had as much comfort together as I wish the next time she comes, after her former dismal experience. It must be very pleasant for you to have made such nice friends as you describe – so magnetically sympathetic too. You have not written whether you have preached Buchananism any where with the bust for a text. I hear that he is now in Boston with a fresh harvest of wonders from the West & South, & is forming a new class. As winter draws on the interest in magnetism will revive like its sparkles in our garments probably, & Mrs Ford may again excite awe or laughter. Young Lowell, the poet, dined with us yesterday & talked in a very Swedenborgian way of spiritual sympathies. He asserts most distinctly that he has been [p. 2] long in the habit of seeing spirits & will not consider it a disease but a very natural phenomenon. That is, that we feel, the presence of a spirit spiritually but always investing, those of our friends with flesh & blood our imagination converts it to an apparent visible reality. He says he had a distinct vision one bright afternoon in his easy chair of Maria White’s face, & when he saw her was drawn to her by the resemblance. His mother is crazy & very possibly his organization is, therefore peculiarly sensitive to wonders. He is about publishing a new volume of poems – much better than his first he thinks, “but no longer himself as he has already left the thoughts which inspired them behind.” He has grown much more manly & I think promises much, being certainly pure in heart & aspiring to do good. His friend Story is adding the solid foundation of the law to his Crichton accomplishments, & Sumner says amazes his Papa with his law knowledge who dreamed not he was to reap honor from such a son. He is about publishing a Law book which the old lawyer pronounce admirable. He has just married a very pretty & transcendental damsel Miss Eldridge & is living where, but yesterday, houses were not, in a court behind the Buzzy mansion in Summer St. Paige, the painter, & Rölker dined with us likewise & we had a very mystical talk all round. Lowell thinks Paige a wonder & he certainly has made a very fine portrait of him. Shaksperian in costume, somewhat. It is the only decent thing in the Artist’s exhibition this year except Cole’s Voyage of Life which has much beauty & poetry in it but is not altogether satisfactory. The old man in the broken boat, upon an infinity of black sea illumined only by the an- [p. 3] gel is very fine – his water is always admirable. We have just got things into winter trim here & very comfortable we are. The defunct trees are felled giving us a nice supply of fuel! & Henry is looking about for worthy successors. We have a driving Yankee neighbor, with a face like a wedge, building too near our left shoulder but as he is to put up a well looking house & not a diseased Temple, & will not sell the land for any Christian sum, we try to resign ourselves, with the hope of getting in time an effectual screen of trees & hedge. One[crossed out: s] gets horribly covetous, in the country, I find of one’s neighbour’s land. Henry continues his Elliott remedies & finds his eyes very little better, but we still hope on, & glean faith from the experience of others. I have written you, I believe, the disastrous fate of the Orpheus – how, as Felton says, he was made a cripple for life by carelessness when landed on this inhospitable shore. It will be a terrible blow to poor Crawford & to us is a real misfortune, altho’ Dexter is patching him together very well I believe. It was fortunately a clean break below the knees, & was so well packed that no other part has suffered. We took tea lately at the Duttons & Mr D told me of Allston’s great picture in more comforting terms than I have heard. That is that it is magnificent atho’ imperfect – some [crossed out: people] figures, par exemple, having their heads raised & their bodies left behind so that their necks are stretched like those of geese in wonder rather than like men’s. Poor little Em begins to miss me for twilight walks & evening chats. She was with me a few days lately but wont leave her Father for more than a night or two. Judge Prescott has had a paralytic attack but is weathering it I believe. I hope Death will not mar yet awhile that beautiful family circle which seems unable to spare a link. [p. 4 bottom] There was a good sale of pictures the other day & Henry set his heart on a fine Isabey sea piece but it was snapped up before he could get there. If he is not very expensive in Paris perhaps you can buy one that you like fresh. And by the way, if a vessel is coming this winter, I should like a dozen hair angola stockings like those Mr Grey bought Mary. It is a delicate kind of wool not to be got here; perhaps some lady friend might enlighten you about it. Get them as long as possible in the feet. Mr Lee thinks of going abroad [p. 4 top] in the Spring & will take Fanny Wright with him – I am glad she has any thing so pleasant to look forward to. Do you know I have a cousin named Elizabeth Wadsworth whose acquaintance I am to make tomorrow. I hope she has some of the attractions of her namesake. I have also an Uncle Commodore Wadsworth & a host of connections of that name somewhere in Maine. My brother Alick is here who has been all summer surveying the no longer disputed boundary. Frank Schroeder is in town at [p. 4 middle] tached to a man of war as secretary & expecting every day to sail for the Mediterranean. A very good berth for him altho’ leading to nothing.
[p. 1 cross] Jewett has been ill in Cincinnati & unravels not the Cameal mystery. Dear Aunt Sam has not been very well & looks pale in her black dress. Her Mother is dead & the grave hardly separates them more than they have been of late by both being enchained to their chairs. John Bryant’s arrival in Paris must have been like a gift from the Club. If you learn more billiard triumphs you will be still more ‘alone in your glory’ there. Clinti Damoreau is singing in Boston & Castedane has been kindling the highest enthusiasm. Allyse Otis was in the 7th Heaven for a few days but I fear has had a Lucifer fall since. Much love from Henry & all, ever yr aff
Fan.
What has become of the Baron? You never mention him “His name is never heard.”
ADDRESSED: J. RUE TRONCHET / [CROSSED OUT: MESSRS BARING BROTHERS &CC / LONDON] /T. G. APPLETON
ESQ. / CARE OF [CROSSED OUT: WELLES] & CO / PARIS
POSTMARK: LONDON / 1 DEC 1843 [ILLEGIBLE]
POSTMARK: D / DE 1 / 1843
POSTMARKS, OTHER
Dear Tom
I think you have decided wisely to let well alone & enjoy your winter comfortably in Paris instead of returning to shiver & yawn in Boston. Still, I could not but await with anxiety the steamer’s arrival, desiring, so much, to welcome you to our hearthstone. Mary writes that she thought of coming home for the winter, but has decided, wisely also, to remain in England. I am very sorry she feels twinges of home sickness, tho’ it is most natural, especially in such a gloomy winter climate as she is now in, but as I have not room for her yet under my own roof we should not have had as much comfort together as I wish the next time she comes, after her former dismal experience. It must be very pleasant for you to have made such nice friends as you describe – so magnetically sympathetic too. You have not written whether you have preached Buchananism any where with the bust for a text. I hear that he is now in Boston with a fresh harvest of wonders from the West & South, & is forming a new class. As winter draws on the interest in magnetism will revive like its sparkles in our garments probably, & Mrs Ford may again excite awe or laughter. Young Lowell, the poet, dined with us yesterday & talked in a very Swedenborgian way of spiritual sympathies. He asserts most distinctly that he has been [p. 2] long in the habit of seeing spirits & will not consider it a disease but a very natural phenomenon. That is, that we feel, the presence of a spirit spiritually but always investing, those of our friends with flesh & blood our imagination converts it to an apparent visible reality. He says he had a distinct vision one bright afternoon in his easy chair of Maria White’s face, & when he saw her was drawn to her by the resemblance. His mother is crazy & very possibly his organization is, therefore peculiarly sensitive to wonders. He is about publishing a new volume of poems – much better than his first he thinks, “but no longer himself as he has already left the thoughts which inspired them behind.” He has grown much more manly & I think promises much, being certainly pure in heart & aspiring to do good. His friend Story is adding the solid foundation of the law to his Crichton accomplishments, & Sumner says amazes his Papa with his law knowledge who dreamed not he was to reap honor from such a son. He is about publishing a Law book which the old lawyer pronounce admirable. He has just married a very pretty & transcendental damsel Miss Eldridge & is living where, but yesterday, houses were not, in a court behind the Buzzy mansion in Summer St. Paige, the painter, & Rölker dined with us likewise & we had a very mystical talk all round. Lowell thinks Paige a wonder & he certainly has made a very fine portrait of him. Shaksperian in costume, somewhat. It is the only decent thing in the Artist’s exhibition this year except Cole’s Voyage of Life which has much beauty & poetry in it but is not altogether satisfactory. The old man in the broken boat, upon an infinity of black sea illumined only by the an- [p. 3] gel is very fine – his water is always admirable. We have just got things into winter trim here & very comfortable we are. The defunct trees are felled giving us a nice supply of fuel! & Henry is looking about for worthy successors. We have a driving Yankee neighbor, with a face like a wedge, building too near our left shoulder but as he is to put up a well looking house & not a diseased Temple, & will not sell the land for any Christian sum, we try to resign ourselves, with the hope of getting in time an effectual screen of trees & hedge. One[crossed out: s] gets horribly covetous, in the country, I find of one’s neighbour’s land. Henry continues his Elliott remedies & finds his eyes very little better, but we still hope on, & glean faith from the experience of others. I have written you, I believe, the disastrous fate of the Orpheus – how, as Felton says, he was made a cripple for life by carelessness when landed on this inhospitable shore. It will be a terrible blow to poor Crawford & to us is a real misfortune, altho’ Dexter is patching him together very well I believe. It was fortunately a clean break below the knees, & was so well packed that no other part has suffered. We took tea lately at the Duttons & Mr D told me of Allston’s great picture in more comforting terms than I have heard. That is that it is magnificent atho’ imperfect – some [crossed out: people] figures, par exemple, having their heads raised & their bodies left behind so that their necks are stretched like those of geese in wonder rather than like men’s. Poor little Em begins to miss me for twilight walks & evening chats. She was with me a few days lately but wont leave her Father for more than a night or two. Judge Prescott has had a paralytic attack but is weathering it I believe. I hope Death will not mar yet awhile that beautiful family circle which seems unable to spare a link. [p. 4 bottom] There was a good sale of pictures the other day & Henry set his heart on a fine Isabey sea piece but it was snapped up before he could get there. If he is not very expensive in Paris perhaps you can buy one that you like fresh. And by the way, if a vessel is coming this winter, I should like a dozen hair angola stockings like those Mr Grey bought Mary. It is a delicate kind of wool not to be got here; perhaps some lady friend might enlighten you about it. Get them as long as possible in the feet. Mr Lee thinks of going abroad [p. 4 top] in the Spring & will take Fanny Wright with him – I am glad she has any thing so pleasant to look forward to. Do you know I have a cousin named Elizabeth Wadsworth whose acquaintance I am to make tomorrow. I hope she has some of the attractions of her namesake. I have also an Uncle Commodore Wadsworth & a host of connections of that name somewhere in Maine. My brother Alick is here who has been all summer surveying the no longer disputed boundary. Frank Schroeder is in town at [p. 4 middle] tached to a man of war as secretary & expecting every day to sail for the Mediterranean. A very good berth for him altho’ leading to nothing.
[p. 1 cross] Jewett has been ill in Cincinnati & unravels not the Cameal mystery. Dear Aunt Sam has not been very well & looks pale in her black dress. Her Mother is dead & the grave hardly separates them more than they have been of late by both being enchained to their chairs. John Bryant’s arrival in Paris must have been like a gift from the Club. If you learn more billiard triumphs you will be still more ‘alone in your glory’ there. Clinti Damoreau is singing in Boston & Castedane has been kindling the highest enthusiasm. Allyse Otis was in the 7th Heaven for a few days but I fear has had a Lucifer fall since. Much love from Henry & all, ever yr aff
Fan.
What has become of the Baron? You never mention him “His name is never heard.”
ADDRESSED: J. RUE TRONCHET / [CROSSED OUT: MESSRS BARING BROTHERS &CC / LONDON] /T. G. APPLETON
ESQ. / CARE OF [CROSSED OUT: WELLES] & CO / PARIS
POSTMARK: LONDON / 1 DEC 1843 [ILLEGIBLE]
POSTMARK: D / DE 1 / 1843
POSTMARKS, OTHER
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-013#030
U. S. National Park Service
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1011/002.001-013#030
Public domain
Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1843 (1011/002.001-013), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1843 (1011/002.001-013), (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
Unknown
11/01/1843 - 11/29/1843
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1843. (1011/002.001-013#030)
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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
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