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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Reverend Samuel Longfellow, 3 April 1844
Manuscript letter
Cambridge April 3d 1844.
My dear brother, [pencil, brackets: “Sam”]
As Henry is too busy with printers & Collegians to answer your letter I hope a few lines from me will not be unacceptable.
Your various gifts were most welcome. The baskets are exceedingly pretty, & I shall value them not a little for their outre-mer associations & as tokens of your kind remembrance of me. The seeds, likewise, are most acceptable, & if they are brave enough to ‘take the air’ in such a climate as ours, I hope you will, some-day, sit & smoke under the shadow of [p. 2] their vines, & be pleasantly reminded of the sunny island where you gathered them. Your April & ours are such different seasons (for at this moment snowdrops are buried under snow banks – like poor Juliets under marble sepulchers, and the birds sing dirges rather than songs of rejoicing) that I shall hardly venture to follow your directions & plant them in such an inhospitable Spring as this. Unless they have brought some Fayal sunshine in their shells I fear so cold a welcome would make them die of homesickness.
The oranges that survived the voyage were excellent, & we distributed them as you requested. Aunt Sally was highly gratified that she was remembered, but [p. 3] would have relished the fruit still better if a note she heard you had written her had accompanied them.
Dr Webster has been kind enough to lend us the last ‘Echo’ from your merry shores. I regretted that it contained no illustrations from your pen. In these days of the World’s second-childhood, when picture-books & are universally appreciated, your ambitions & excellent Journal should not be behind the age in that respect, so I modestly suggest to the Editor, if he will hearken to a hint from ‘young America,’ that this omission must be amended.
Henry begs me to say that he has executed your commission at the tailors to the best of his ability & hopes you will be satisfied with the result. As he only received the [p. 4] basket last ev’g, containing your later note, he has not time to purchase the cravat you desire, & therefore sends you one from his own wardrobe which may serve your present needs.
All your friends here are well, & make frequent enquiries after you. Mrs Greenleaf has the same serenely beautiful countenance & Cary is ripening into a very pleasing damsel. The Nortons are as lovely & dove-like as ever, & seem in no haste to quit their happy parental nest. The whole family flies South, however, in a few days in search of the Spring. Henry is very well & very busy, & is beginning to sing with the birds. I dont mean literally but after the manner of poets. Graham, next month, will be transfigured by one of the best poems he has ever written; - upon Peace. As you will see by the papers, we are in a great ferment [p. 1 cross] about Tariff & Texas, but I trust Heaven has a better destiny in store for us than all this folly & wrong doing threatens. Hoping to talk with you in a more satisfactory way, my dear brother, before many months.
ever affly yrs
Fanny L.
My dear brother, [pencil, brackets: “Sam”]
As Henry is too busy with printers & Collegians to answer your letter I hope a few lines from me will not be unacceptable.
Your various gifts were most welcome. The baskets are exceedingly pretty, & I shall value them not a little for their outre-mer associations & as tokens of your kind remembrance of me. The seeds, likewise, are most acceptable, & if they are brave enough to ‘take the air’ in such a climate as ours, I hope you will, some-day, sit & smoke under the shadow of [p. 2] their vines, & be pleasantly reminded of the sunny island where you gathered them. Your April & ours are such different seasons (for at this moment snowdrops are buried under snow banks – like poor Juliets under marble sepulchers, and the birds sing dirges rather than songs of rejoicing) that I shall hardly venture to follow your directions & plant them in such an inhospitable Spring as this. Unless they have brought some Fayal sunshine in their shells I fear so cold a welcome would make them die of homesickness.
The oranges that survived the voyage were excellent, & we distributed them as you requested. Aunt Sally was highly gratified that she was remembered, but [p. 3] would have relished the fruit still better if a note she heard you had written her had accompanied them.
Dr Webster has been kind enough to lend us the last ‘Echo’ from your merry shores. I regretted that it contained no illustrations from your pen. In these days of the World’s second-childhood, when picture-books & are universally appreciated, your ambitions & excellent Journal should not be behind the age in that respect, so I modestly suggest to the Editor, if he will hearken to a hint from ‘young America,’ that this omission must be amended.
Henry begs me to say that he has executed your commission at the tailors to the best of his ability & hopes you will be satisfied with the result. As he only received the [p. 4] basket last ev’g, containing your later note, he has not time to purchase the cravat you desire, & therefore sends you one from his own wardrobe which may serve your present needs.
All your friends here are well, & make frequent enquiries after you. Mrs Greenleaf has the same serenely beautiful countenance & Cary is ripening into a very pleasing damsel. The Nortons are as lovely & dove-like as ever, & seem in no haste to quit their happy parental nest. The whole family flies South, however, in a few days in search of the Spring. Henry is very well & very busy, & is beginning to sing with the birds. I dont mean literally but after the manner of poets. Graham, next month, will be transfigured by one of the best poems he has ever written; - upon Peace. As you will see by the papers, we are in a great ferment [p. 1 cross] about Tariff & Texas, but I trust Heaven has a better destiny in store for us than all this folly & wrong doing threatens. Hoping to talk with you in a more satisfactory way, my dear brother, before many months.
ever affly yrs
Fanny L.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-014#009
U. S. National Park Service
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1011/002.001-014#009
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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
04/03/1844
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1844. (1011/002.001-014#009)
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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 6:38:45 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 6:38:45 PM
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