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Fanny Longfellow to Tom Appleton, 29 December 1843
Manuscript letter
Craigie House Dec 29th 1843.
Many thanks, dearest, for your poetical note, with its sketch à la Hogarth of your ‘appartement’, in return for which I think I will give you our interior at this present. The Library, you remember, with its cozy fauteuils, heroic bust of Greene, & goodly bookcases topped by [crossed out: some] plaster worthies, its tiled fire place, old-fashioned mirror &c. A few feminine changes alone have intruded, but it is mainly the same. So, for our salon beneath, which has been crée entirely since my entrance into the mansion. Behold then its modern aspect but most comfortable withal; curtains of drab ground gay with flowers, a flowery paper likewise; between the front windows a mirror in which are reflected, from the paneled wall opposite, our Christmas garlands & the graceful figures of [crossed out: two fig] a dame with falcon on wrist and a youthful hunter blowing his horn in papier maché thru a spruce miniature grove. These are of drab & gold & rest upon Gothic brackets. Between the two windows, opening to the east, upon a Gothic stand of dark wood, merrily ticks my pretty French clock, which, it seems to me, told the time more wearily when it spoke from my bedroom at home; below it is the Prie Dieu, at its left your sweet Dutch Girl looks modestly down upon her new life & upon a charming miniature of Il Violino by Mrs Greene. In one corner is a pretty Chiffonier like Aunt Sams, not unadorned with knickknacks, [p. 2] and over the piano, reaching to the ceiling, stand Sir Wm Pepperell’s two fair children, the boy with his pale face & drooping eyes seeming conscious of the sad destiny in store for him, & his sister blooming with full English health & looking able to endure any fate that might befall her. Fancy Henry playing a nocturne while I lounge by the fire in a comfortable fauteuil and you have our after dinner look to the life. But I have a picture perhaps more interesting than this! to paint for you, viz Allston’s great one, which Mr Dana civilly permitted us to see last week with the propietors only. With us slight feeling of intrusion & of taking advantage of the helplessness of death I entered his sanctum from which even [?] was excluded while he lived & while this picture was unveiled & at first I could hardly enjoy it missing so sadly his whimsical view & gentle presence. It is well named his great picture. No other shows half as much power of conception & execution; it is indeed a new revelation of his great genius & is worthy, unfinished as it is, of the beast days of Italian art. Belshazzar is alas hidden under a veil of white paint, but his foot & hand are noble, & give hope that the veil can be removed & his perfect figure released. The Queen is finished & very grand with a countenance stiff & pallid with fear & yet able to bear proudly any interpretation Daniel may disclose. He stands erect in the centre of the picture & is complete excepting one hand. Nothing can be more majestic than his figure draped in full folds of brown, his face is sincerely [word crossed out] noble & informed not unlike Jeremiah’s. The [p. 3] group of soothsayers if full of power & gorgeous coloring but very unfinished; some of them are like hideous masks, so harshly in haste & scorn depicted. Nothing can be finer to an artist & a poet than the contrast of the pure effulgent light from the writing upon all the faces in the foreground, & the sickly lurid glare from lamps before a gold image in the remote background beyond columns & steps innumerable, as if the false pagan atmosphere was shrinking before the celestial & true. Some of the female heads are very beautiful, one especially prostrated in adoration at Daniel’s feet, her golden hair & neck bathed in light from the writing – also another, earnestly listening as if life or death were in his words. It has a more antique, mellow look than his others even & required much cleaning before it could be shown. It is not framed & they think of exhibiting it. I longed to have the freedom of his studio & got a peep at all his sketches which remain as he left them. in one corner a pine closet quite written over with remarks, aphorisms, quotations & jokes which I covet beyond measure. Miss Greenough, whose father is on the Committee to apprize his sketches &c, says they think of having them printed, many are so beautiful. The two first sketches for the great picture are very interesting; gloriously colored in parts & having figures which he had better retained. The ominous words which gleam from his canvass seem sadly prophetic of his own doom. His empire is over and to be scattered far & wide, his only in an outward sense. Lowell has just published a volume of poems. Many are very beautiful, more manly & finished than his former & as full of a pure [p. 4] and Christian spirit. I shall send it to Mary by the Cap & would to you knew I how. We took our Xmas dinner in town & as a contrast to your cuisine I give you its substantial carte. Boiled mutton, roast turkey, a pair of delicious Canvass Backs from Wm A. plum pudding & mince pie of course. Judkins helped us eat it. I have not seen him before since my marriage: he grows stouter with every passage. We had a very pleasant impromptu dinner with Sarah Cleaveland lately joining Em & Mary Dwight, & tho’ not expected, warmly welcomed. ‘Le diner est servi’ announced a stout servant but there his French ended; so likewise the dinner was an amalgamation like most American attempts. Ned was the ‘perfumed darling’ to perfection. Sarah is more cheerful & will go to Europe in the Spring, which I fear will finish her rather for Yankee land. I sent your message to Mrs Chapman, but alas – the packet is not yet in, & the Fair has closed I believe. Your chapeau must wait in patience & darkness if a Parisian hat can without committing suicide until next year. I put off going to the Fair till they should arrive supposing it would not close without them. Henry went & Mrs C made many apologies to him to be forwarded to you for the mistake & the trouble imposed upon a bachelor & expressed herself all the more grateful for yr kindness. The Liberty Bell has a letter from the Duchess of Southereland to the Lord M in which she envies him for having touched the hand of such a woman as Mrs Chapman, & has a noble sentence in it from her eldest daughter. Dr Lieber has received permission to go to Europe for a year & is beside himself with joy. Mathilda goes also, & it is delightful to know them so happy after such a long exile. They sail in March. Mr Prescott is sitting to Eames [p. 5] & had a pleasant chat with him Christmas ev’g at Mrs Ticknors, where was got up a beautiful tree in the German fashion. It was a very lofty symmetrical pine & the sparkling candles & gay gifts against its dark boughs had a charming effect. These gifts were all made in the family & the delight of young & old was the prettiest part of the show. I got a fine bouquet and a pretty purse from Anna. There was great frolicking & fun among the cousins, but alas! the fair Nortons were deprived of it all by illness. Ned Austin told me he continued to plague Susan about you for which I scolded him. We felt your loss & Mary’s greatly in drinking yr healths at Xmas & the next day, her wedding day, but had some consolation in hoping you were with her. By this time I suppose you are back to your bachelor dom[es]ticity & enjoying double the efforts of your cuisinère, toute Britonne qu’elle est, after the rough road & old England. By an allusion in your last I perceive you have read, or are reading, Les mysteries de Paris. Is it not a remarkable book & likely to do as much good as Dickens’ in reforming evils & abominations? I should think it must inspire all the ennuyeéd or benevolent women in Paris to become soeurs de charité. Tell us how it is received there. Poor Uncle Wm has had another shock in the sudden death of Mr Oxnard. George Gardner’s father has also departed. I shall miss his benevolent smile. I am hoping every moment for Em’s apperarance, having urged her to pass this last night of the eventful year under our roof. How I wish I dare hope as much happiness for her in the next as I do for myself!
With Henry’s love & our best wishes for a happy New Year farewell, dearest, for the present –
ever yr aft,
Fanny L.
Many thanks, dearest, for your poetical note, with its sketch à la Hogarth of your ‘appartement’, in return for which I think I will give you our interior at this present. The Library, you remember, with its cozy fauteuils, heroic bust of Greene, & goodly bookcases topped by [crossed out: some] plaster worthies, its tiled fire place, old-fashioned mirror &c. A few feminine changes alone have intruded, but it is mainly the same. So, for our salon beneath, which has been crée entirely since my entrance into the mansion. Behold then its modern aspect but most comfortable withal; curtains of drab ground gay with flowers, a flowery paper likewise; between the front windows a mirror in which are reflected, from the paneled wall opposite, our Christmas garlands & the graceful figures of [crossed out: two fig] a dame with falcon on wrist and a youthful hunter blowing his horn in papier maché thru a spruce miniature grove. These are of drab & gold & rest upon Gothic brackets. Between the two windows, opening to the east, upon a Gothic stand of dark wood, merrily ticks my pretty French clock, which, it seems to me, told the time more wearily when it spoke from my bedroom at home; below it is the Prie Dieu, at its left your sweet Dutch Girl looks modestly down upon her new life & upon a charming miniature of Il Violino by Mrs Greene. In one corner is a pretty Chiffonier like Aunt Sams, not unadorned with knickknacks, [p. 2] and over the piano, reaching to the ceiling, stand Sir Wm Pepperell’s two fair children, the boy with his pale face & drooping eyes seeming conscious of the sad destiny in store for him, & his sister blooming with full English health & looking able to endure any fate that might befall her. Fancy Henry playing a nocturne while I lounge by the fire in a comfortable fauteuil and you have our after dinner look to the life. But I have a picture perhaps more interesting than this! to paint for you, viz Allston’s great one, which Mr Dana civilly permitted us to see last week with the propietors only. With us slight feeling of intrusion & of taking advantage of the helplessness of death I entered his sanctum from which even [?] was excluded while he lived & while this picture was unveiled & at first I could hardly enjoy it missing so sadly his whimsical view & gentle presence. It is well named his great picture. No other shows half as much power of conception & execution; it is indeed a new revelation of his great genius & is worthy, unfinished as it is, of the beast days of Italian art. Belshazzar is alas hidden under a veil of white paint, but his foot & hand are noble, & give hope that the veil can be removed & his perfect figure released. The Queen is finished & very grand with a countenance stiff & pallid with fear & yet able to bear proudly any interpretation Daniel may disclose. He stands erect in the centre of the picture & is complete excepting one hand. Nothing can be more majestic than his figure draped in full folds of brown, his face is sincerely [word crossed out] noble & informed not unlike Jeremiah’s. The [p. 3] group of soothsayers if full of power & gorgeous coloring but very unfinished; some of them are like hideous masks, so harshly in haste & scorn depicted. Nothing can be finer to an artist & a poet than the contrast of the pure effulgent light from the writing upon all the faces in the foreground, & the sickly lurid glare from lamps before a gold image in the remote background beyond columns & steps innumerable, as if the false pagan atmosphere was shrinking before the celestial & true. Some of the female heads are very beautiful, one especially prostrated in adoration at Daniel’s feet, her golden hair & neck bathed in light from the writing – also another, earnestly listening as if life or death were in his words. It has a more antique, mellow look than his others even & required much cleaning before it could be shown. It is not framed & they think of exhibiting it. I longed to have the freedom of his studio & got a peep at all his sketches which remain as he left them. in one corner a pine closet quite written over with remarks, aphorisms, quotations & jokes which I covet beyond measure. Miss Greenough, whose father is on the Committee to apprize his sketches &c, says they think of having them printed, many are so beautiful. The two first sketches for the great picture are very interesting; gloriously colored in parts & having figures which he had better retained. The ominous words which gleam from his canvass seem sadly prophetic of his own doom. His empire is over and to be scattered far & wide, his only in an outward sense. Lowell has just published a volume of poems. Many are very beautiful, more manly & finished than his former & as full of a pure [p. 4] and Christian spirit. I shall send it to Mary by the Cap & would to you knew I how. We took our Xmas dinner in town & as a contrast to your cuisine I give you its substantial carte. Boiled mutton, roast turkey, a pair of delicious Canvass Backs from Wm A. plum pudding & mince pie of course. Judkins helped us eat it. I have not seen him before since my marriage: he grows stouter with every passage. We had a very pleasant impromptu dinner with Sarah Cleaveland lately joining Em & Mary Dwight, & tho’ not expected, warmly welcomed. ‘Le diner est servi’ announced a stout servant but there his French ended; so likewise the dinner was an amalgamation like most American attempts. Ned was the ‘perfumed darling’ to perfection. Sarah is more cheerful & will go to Europe in the Spring, which I fear will finish her rather for Yankee land. I sent your message to Mrs Chapman, but alas – the packet is not yet in, & the Fair has closed I believe. Your chapeau must wait in patience & darkness if a Parisian hat can without committing suicide until next year. I put off going to the Fair till they should arrive supposing it would not close without them. Henry went & Mrs C made many apologies to him to be forwarded to you for the mistake & the trouble imposed upon a bachelor & expressed herself all the more grateful for yr kindness. The Liberty Bell has a letter from the Duchess of Southereland to the Lord M in which she envies him for having touched the hand of such a woman as Mrs Chapman, & has a noble sentence in it from her eldest daughter. Dr Lieber has received permission to go to Europe for a year & is beside himself with joy. Mathilda goes also, & it is delightful to know them so happy after such a long exile. They sail in March. Mr Prescott is sitting to Eames [p. 5] & had a pleasant chat with him Christmas ev’g at Mrs Ticknors, where was got up a beautiful tree in the German fashion. It was a very lofty symmetrical pine & the sparkling candles & gay gifts against its dark boughs had a charming effect. These gifts were all made in the family & the delight of young & old was the prettiest part of the show. I got a fine bouquet and a pretty purse from Anna. There was great frolicking & fun among the cousins, but alas! the fair Nortons were deprived of it all by illness. Ned Austin told me he continued to plague Susan about you for which I scolded him. We felt your loss & Mary’s greatly in drinking yr healths at Xmas & the next day, her wedding day, but had some consolation in hoping you were with her. By this time I suppose you are back to your bachelor dom[es]ticity & enjoying double the efforts of your cuisinère, toute Britonne qu’elle est, after the rough road & old England. By an allusion in your last I perceive you have read, or are reading, Les mysteries de Paris. Is it not a remarkable book & likely to do as much good as Dickens’ in reforming evils & abominations? I should think it must inspire all the ennuyeéd or benevolent women in Paris to become soeurs de charité. Tell us how it is received there. Poor Uncle Wm has had another shock in the sudden death of Mr Oxnard. George Gardner’s father has also departed. I shall miss his benevolent smile. I am hoping every moment for Em’s apperarance, having urged her to pass this last night of the eventful year under our roof. How I wish I dare hope as much happiness for her in the next as I do for myself!
With Henry’s love & our best wishes for a happy New Year farewell, dearest, for the present –
ever yr aft,
Fanny L.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-013#036
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#036
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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
12/29/1843
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1843. (1011/002.001-013#036)
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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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