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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 14 August 1848
Manuscript letter
Melville Hall. August 14th 1848
I had been indulging the hope that you might possibly be tempted to enjoy with us the charms of Typee Valley, dearest, but Sam’s visit has cut my hope in twain & I resign it to congratulate you upon that event, which must have given you so much pleasure. He will be better content with your loss in on seeing the [????] of your present house, & how he must enjoy the sight of darling Pic, with the change a few months gives a baby. I am very impatient, myself, to behold him, - he is now at such a pretty baby age, & I suppose has not begun to suffer with his teeth as you do not mention that important era. So much the better think I. Mine (children not teeth I mean) have been all very backward, & yet have been tormented less than most children, - having greater strength to bear the trial, by the delay. I am most happy to be able to give you any help my experience can offer in the way of his winter wardrobe! I should insist upon nightgowns of soft British cotton, made high in the neck, drawn into a band, without a yoke, to be easier, & with long sleeves also, as a child will always expose its arms & shoulders in bed. These should open behind, & a loose belt of the same attached to it in front, is well to keep it down in place. I have just heard from Mary Greenleaf, who did not reach Cambridge till a week after we left, that she deposited in our house the little [p. 2] shoes she brought from New Orleans for you. How shall I send them to you? Is there an express to Geneseo? We shall return a week from today at the latest, & they shall then be sent on immediately if I can find a way – or before, if you are in haste for them by Maria Goodwin’s hand. As soon as he begins to creep I think shoes & stockings are desirable, but he will not think of that probably till nine months old. Have you shortened his clothes yet? While this warm weather continues you can easily do it, & he will soon need a free use of his limbs. His nightgowns, of course, should be made rather longer than his feet, to keep them warm, but his gowns & petticoats I would tuck up or cut off at once, if you have not already done it. So much for your darling who I am rejoiced to know continues well, & I am sure is every day giving you more happiness. Poor Mrs Nat Thayer was very anxious about hers. I met her some ten days ago at Lebanon where we passed a day. She was there with several members of her family Mrs Tom Willing was there also with her rowdy looking husband. The most prominent young ladies seemed to be the Miss Browns of Boston, whom you have doubtless seen in their gay cloaks at the Opera. One is only fifteen, but paraded the drawing room in white muslin with the air of an old belle, flirting most coquettishly with a youngster.
Henry thanks you very warmly for all the pleasure you intend to give him, & is very sorry to have lost it hitherto, at the same time, regretting his decision. He could not tear himself away at last, & felt [p. 3] that it was hardly right to leave Mary for so lo[ng] a time. We have not heard from Sumner, but h[ope] in a day or two he will be here to tell us of Gen[??] & the Buffalo Convention, in which I take muc[h] interest. We dined lately with Mrs Theodore S. a[t] Stockbridge, & were surprised to find Theodore there He sticks to the old party it seems, & will not join the Reformers. We had a very pleasant day – Tom amused them with his French news, to which a nic[e] French governess Sarah has listened with more interest than comprehension. Theodore was lively as us[uall] and Sarah more gentle & amiable than I ever saw he[r] She has very nice children. Two beautiful boys a little younger than my two, & her girls promise beau[tiful] likewise. We called on Mrs Fields (whose husband is a Barnburner) & found her as youthful in spirits as ever & evidently a very happy woman. She has truly met reward here for her past patience & devotion. We [??] Leeward, by the romantic word we used to stroll & past that loveliest of meadows between it & the [??] which Henry had never seen & was enraptured with in the glowing sunset light. We reached Mrs Wards just as the mists & the moonlight were stirring together upon the beautiful Lake, & found a pleasant party. The Sedgwicks, a Mrs Hagarty of New York, who is boarding at Lenox, Mrs Butler looking really handsome in lace over blue with a wreath of artificial autumnal leaves upon her head (which I especially coveted) but with a most dejected, tragic countenance, & evidently in a most savage mood, not softened by Rakemans delicious playing of Chopin, Schubert &c with which he enriched our evening. I have heard no [p. 4] mention of the report you [crossed out: mention] speak of touching Sally Butler, [??] trust it will never reach her mother’s ears. She is suf[fi]ciently wretched - & often looks like the figure Dante des[cr]ibed as mutely expressing – “I can no more.” She has spoken with me freely of her position & with unutterable bitterness. She said nothing would induce her to oppose a thing which would be the best thing that could happen to her, but, - her eyes kindling with the fire of a tigress robbed of her young, - “I will not be branded as a woman who would desert her children.” This I am confident is her sole motive for opposing the divorce. As to money, what has he to give her? He has devoured everything, & she can make enough by her own exertions to support herself. I am not drawn to her as formerly, magnetic as she is – perhaps because it is too painful to contemplate a woman writhing under such great wrongs without the power to help, & her whole nature is embittered by them not softened as tenderer natures are, We can bear the calm despair of the Niobe, but not the tortures of Lacoon, still struggling, still contending with his fate. Fresh pangs constantly wound her. She has lately heard that her children were placed at a seminary near Philadelphia, & where strictly ordered to see only Mr Butler’s friends. One of her’s, who had given her news of them from time to time, is now cut off from sending the poor mother even this consolation. What useless cruelty is this! Not knowing whether she had heard the report of Sally choosing her for her guardian – I only ventured to ask when she had heard from her. She replied “They have not been allowed to write me for a year.” She never looked better than now & dresses uncommonly well, but I can see in her what George Sand describes as a constant desire to rugir. She must win her cause. Every fact is against him, & it does not say much for Philadelphia [p. 1 cross] morality that they can uphold a man of such notorious conduct. We feel rather sad here in returning together to the same scenes & seeing the same people with such a different interest – not to speak of raising so many ghosts. Even Aunt Dorothy has a pretty new house, & the old familiar one is in the hands of strangers. But we are severely enjoying too, not with the fervor of earlier days, but in a quiet, matronly way, thro’ our children, who find fresh pleasures every day – gathering blackberries being just now a prominent one. Lizzie Allen never looked prettier – is far too pretty, Tom says to be wasted on a village [edge of paper lost] [p. 2 cross] port when we leave, I believe, but Mary will [edge of paper lost] at Lenox & about. We planned an expedition to Bashbishe, but the heat & dust of the last week have broken it up. Good bye dearest – How I wish you were with us, but if you & yours are well & happy I have no right to ask more. With much love to Lizzy Wm
ever yrs fondly
Fanny E.L.
I had been indulging the hope that you might possibly be tempted to enjoy with us the charms of Typee Valley, dearest, but Sam’s visit has cut my hope in twain & I resign it to congratulate you upon that event, which must have given you so much pleasure. He will be better content with your loss in on seeing the [????] of your present house, & how he must enjoy the sight of darling Pic, with the change a few months gives a baby. I am very impatient, myself, to behold him, - he is now at such a pretty baby age, & I suppose has not begun to suffer with his teeth as you do not mention that important era. So much the better think I. Mine (children not teeth I mean) have been all very backward, & yet have been tormented less than most children, - having greater strength to bear the trial, by the delay. I am most happy to be able to give you any help my experience can offer in the way of his winter wardrobe! I should insist upon nightgowns of soft British cotton, made high in the neck, drawn into a band, without a yoke, to be easier, & with long sleeves also, as a child will always expose its arms & shoulders in bed. These should open behind, & a loose belt of the same attached to it in front, is well to keep it down in place. I have just heard from Mary Greenleaf, who did not reach Cambridge till a week after we left, that she deposited in our house the little [p. 2] shoes she brought from New Orleans for you. How shall I send them to you? Is there an express to Geneseo? We shall return a week from today at the latest, & they shall then be sent on immediately if I can find a way – or before, if you are in haste for them by Maria Goodwin’s hand. As soon as he begins to creep I think shoes & stockings are desirable, but he will not think of that probably till nine months old. Have you shortened his clothes yet? While this warm weather continues you can easily do it, & he will soon need a free use of his limbs. His nightgowns, of course, should be made rather longer than his feet, to keep them warm, but his gowns & petticoats I would tuck up or cut off at once, if you have not already done it. So much for your darling who I am rejoiced to know continues well, & I am sure is every day giving you more happiness. Poor Mrs Nat Thayer was very anxious about hers. I met her some ten days ago at Lebanon where we passed a day. She was there with several members of her family Mrs Tom Willing was there also with her rowdy looking husband. The most prominent young ladies seemed to be the Miss Browns of Boston, whom you have doubtless seen in their gay cloaks at the Opera. One is only fifteen, but paraded the drawing room in white muslin with the air of an old belle, flirting most coquettishly with a youngster.
Henry thanks you very warmly for all the pleasure you intend to give him, & is very sorry to have lost it hitherto, at the same time, regretting his decision. He could not tear himself away at last, & felt [p. 3] that it was hardly right to leave Mary for so lo[ng] a time. We have not heard from Sumner, but h[ope] in a day or two he will be here to tell us of Gen[??] & the Buffalo Convention, in which I take muc[h] interest. We dined lately with Mrs Theodore S. a[t] Stockbridge, & were surprised to find Theodore there He sticks to the old party it seems, & will not join the Reformers. We had a very pleasant day – Tom amused them with his French news, to which a nic[e] French governess Sarah has listened with more interest than comprehension. Theodore was lively as us[uall] and Sarah more gentle & amiable than I ever saw he[r] She has very nice children. Two beautiful boys a little younger than my two, & her girls promise beau[tiful] likewise. We called on Mrs Fields (whose husband is a Barnburner) & found her as youthful in spirits as ever & evidently a very happy woman. She has truly met reward here for her past patience & devotion. We [??] Leeward, by the romantic word we used to stroll & past that loveliest of meadows between it & the [??] which Henry had never seen & was enraptured with in the glowing sunset light. We reached Mrs Wards just as the mists & the moonlight were stirring together upon the beautiful Lake, & found a pleasant party. The Sedgwicks, a Mrs Hagarty of New York, who is boarding at Lenox, Mrs Butler looking really handsome in lace over blue with a wreath of artificial autumnal leaves upon her head (which I especially coveted) but with a most dejected, tragic countenance, & evidently in a most savage mood, not softened by Rakemans delicious playing of Chopin, Schubert &c with which he enriched our evening. I have heard no [p. 4] mention of the report you [crossed out: mention] speak of touching Sally Butler, [??] trust it will never reach her mother’s ears. She is suf[fi]ciently wretched - & often looks like the figure Dante des[cr]ibed as mutely expressing – “I can no more.” She has spoken with me freely of her position & with unutterable bitterness. She said nothing would induce her to oppose a thing which would be the best thing that could happen to her, but, - her eyes kindling with the fire of a tigress robbed of her young, - “I will not be branded as a woman who would desert her children.” This I am confident is her sole motive for opposing the divorce. As to money, what has he to give her? He has devoured everything, & she can make enough by her own exertions to support herself. I am not drawn to her as formerly, magnetic as she is – perhaps because it is too painful to contemplate a woman writhing under such great wrongs without the power to help, & her whole nature is embittered by them not softened as tenderer natures are, We can bear the calm despair of the Niobe, but not the tortures of Lacoon, still struggling, still contending with his fate. Fresh pangs constantly wound her. She has lately heard that her children were placed at a seminary near Philadelphia, & where strictly ordered to see only Mr Butler’s friends. One of her’s, who had given her news of them from time to time, is now cut off from sending the poor mother even this consolation. What useless cruelty is this! Not knowing whether she had heard the report of Sally choosing her for her guardian – I only ventured to ask when she had heard from her. She replied “They have not been allowed to write me for a year.” She never looked better than now & dresses uncommonly well, but I can see in her what George Sand describes as a constant desire to rugir. She must win her cause. Every fact is against him, & it does not say much for Philadelphia [p. 1 cross] morality that they can uphold a man of such notorious conduct. We feel rather sad here in returning together to the same scenes & seeing the same people with such a different interest – not to speak of raising so many ghosts. Even Aunt Dorothy has a pretty new house, & the old familiar one is in the hands of strangers. But we are severely enjoying too, not with the fervor of earlier days, but in a quiet, matronly way, thro’ our children, who find fresh pleasures every day – gathering blackberries being just now a prominent one. Lizzie Allen never looked prettier – is far too pretty, Tom says to be wasted on a village [edge of paper lost] [p. 2 cross] port when we leave, I believe, but Mary will [edge of paper lost] at Lenox & about. We planned an expedition to Bashbishe, but the heat & dust of the last week have broken it up. Good bye dearest – How I wish you were with us, but if you & yours are well & happy I have no right to ask more. With much love to Lizzy Wm
ever yrs fondly
Fanny E.L.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#026
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1848 (1011/002.001-018), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1848 (1011/002.001-018), (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
08/14/1848
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1848. (1011/002.001-018#026)
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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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