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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 23 February 1857
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Feb 23d 1857.
Dear Tom,
Washington's birthday is every year more honored, as we further depart from the nobleness of his character, & today is a universal holy day, & in the evening Mr Everett rolls forth his sonorous sentences again at the Music Hall, the proceeds to help buy Mt Vernon from the shameless family. Mrs Kemble resigns her reading for the occasion.
She is as wonderful as ever, and the enthusiasm & eagerness as great as on her former visit. It is as fresh a pleasure to me as ever, and the genius it implies as amazing. We had a very successful supper for her the other eve- [p. 2] ning & never was a merrier round table. Our guests were the Motleys, the Agassiz’, the Sam Wards, Lowell & Emmeline & Sam. I only wished you had been with us to fire another revolver of wit against Motley & Lowell. They were all in the greatest spirits & kept it up till nearly morning. Mrs K. was in one of her gayest moods & seemed to enjoy it highly.
A few days before I was at a grand dinner at Emmelines, such a contrast for splendour & propriety! It was for Mrs Van Ransellaer, Mrs Thayer’s mother, & most of the guests were elderly, and arrayed in great magnificence of costume. Mrs V.R. is a very handsome old lady, with a complexion beyond the power of nature at her [p. 3] age. Mrs Bigelow Lawrence I had a chat with, in the [crossed out: lovely] pretty oval room where we had coffee & she amused me very much with her lively relations of English society. I intended to wear your dress on this occasion, but I found, at the last moment, something necessary to be done to it so had to reserve it for another evening.
Ned Austin said he wrote you long since of the shirts.
Sumner leaves today for Washington thinking it important he should be there to vote on some last things. He has taken his passage for the 7th March & will not return to Boston again sailing from N. York in another French steamer. His poor mother must feel that, but she hopes he will gain so much strength & refreshment [p. 4] by an entire change of air & interest that she is very glad to have him go – as are we all. I fear this journey to Washington will knock him up, & hope his Philadelphia physician wont allow him to go further.
I saw at Cottons, on Saturday, an excellent full size portrait of him, by a young man named Wright, and Miss Hosmer’s Puck seated on a toad-stool, a charming little fellow, but her other statue was gone & also Hunt’s Flower Girl which has been much admired. We are at a loss how to decide for the summer, thinking you may come back. The Mountfords have raised the price of their house, which is more than we should care to pay for so small a one alone. Whither do your inclinations turn? Newport seems saddened by all the changes. I rather fancy Beverley, to have woods & sea both if one could find a nice place, but per- [p. 1 cross] haps you are by this in Rome & do not look to return so soon. How pleasant your Paris Club must be. Remember me very kindly to Anna Greene & the Shaws.
A Mr Fletcher brought Henry the other day a warm message of “love & admiration” from the Emperor of Brazil.
Ever yr affte
Fanny.
If you are still in Paris you may send this to Mary as I shall not be able to write to her.
Dear Tom,
Washington's birthday is every year more honored, as we further depart from the nobleness of his character, & today is a universal holy day, & in the evening Mr Everett rolls forth his sonorous sentences again at the Music Hall, the proceeds to help buy Mt Vernon from the shameless family. Mrs Kemble resigns her reading for the occasion.
She is as wonderful as ever, and the enthusiasm & eagerness as great as on her former visit. It is as fresh a pleasure to me as ever, and the genius it implies as amazing. We had a very successful supper for her the other eve- [p. 2] ning & never was a merrier round table. Our guests were the Motleys, the Agassiz’, the Sam Wards, Lowell & Emmeline & Sam. I only wished you had been with us to fire another revolver of wit against Motley & Lowell. They were all in the greatest spirits & kept it up till nearly morning. Mrs K. was in one of her gayest moods & seemed to enjoy it highly.
A few days before I was at a grand dinner at Emmelines, such a contrast for splendour & propriety! It was for Mrs Van Ransellaer, Mrs Thayer’s mother, & most of the guests were elderly, and arrayed in great magnificence of costume. Mrs V.R. is a very handsome old lady, with a complexion beyond the power of nature at her [p. 3] age. Mrs Bigelow Lawrence I had a chat with, in the [crossed out: lovely] pretty oval room where we had coffee & she amused me very much with her lively relations of English society. I intended to wear your dress on this occasion, but I found, at the last moment, something necessary to be done to it so had to reserve it for another evening.
Ned Austin said he wrote you long since of the shirts.
Sumner leaves today for Washington thinking it important he should be there to vote on some last things. He has taken his passage for the 7th March & will not return to Boston again sailing from N. York in another French steamer. His poor mother must feel that, but she hopes he will gain so much strength & refreshment [p. 4] by an entire change of air & interest that she is very glad to have him go – as are we all. I fear this journey to Washington will knock him up, & hope his Philadelphia physician wont allow him to go further.
I saw at Cottons, on Saturday, an excellent full size portrait of him, by a young man named Wright, and Miss Hosmer’s Puck seated on a toad-stool, a charming little fellow, but her other statue was gone & also Hunt’s Flower Girl which has been much admired. We are at a loss how to decide for the summer, thinking you may come back. The Mountfords have raised the price of their house, which is more than we should care to pay for so small a one alone. Whither do your inclinations turn? Newport seems saddened by all the changes. I rather fancy Beverley, to have woods & sea both if one could find a nice place, but per- [p. 1 cross] haps you are by this in Rome & do not look to return so soon. How pleasant your Paris Club must be. Remember me very kindly to Anna Greene & the Shaws.
A Mr Fletcher brought Henry the other day a warm message of “love & admiration” from the Emperor of Brazil.
Ever yr affte
Fanny.
If you are still in Paris you may send this to Mary as I shall not be able to write to her.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-027#007
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1857 (1011/002.001-027), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1857 (1011/002.001-027), (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
02/23/1857
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1857. (1011/002.001-027#007)
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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 5:24:34 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:24:34 PM
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