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Caroline Frances Appleton to Fanny Appleton, 11 June 1835
Manuscript letter
C.F.A. / July 1835.
[addressed:] Miss Frances E. Appleton / Care of N. Appleton Esq. / Boston / Mass.
[pencil] mail [squiggle]
[reverse of envelope] my
Lowell June 11th 1835.
[pencil] My very -- [/pencil] Dear Fanny,
I should begin this letter with an excuse for not writing to you before (which certainly under any other circumstances would have been very ungrateful considering your late kindness,) but that when I tell you that since my arrival, my time has been entirely taken up with attending the sick bed of Mrs. Smith’s little daughter. I know you [crossed out: y] will think that excuse enough. Here I am existing in deed, but in what a state! I can hardly tell you which predominates most in my frame, flesh or sand, ye gods! what a place this is! Eyesight and hearing are things here that might be easily dispensed with, such a noise and hubbub as is surrounding us, the railroad on one side, building of barns, and institutions on the other, and blasting on all sides, silence is here unknown! Has my absence occasioned any great commotion, does the [mall?] still boast, its walking figure clothed in white, that monument of pride and poverty; and he the [misforted?], that Pelham of the dirt still lingers [he?] about the shady confines of the favoured mall, that places for nightingales and those fair maidens for thom the world has lost its charms! “My Son” in all his height of majesty and beauty visited this place a few days since with [Mrs?] [Parish?], one only record of these visit has been left, [Mrs?] Boot’s girl on there calling to see Mr Boot, obsered [sic] that she [page 2] had let in the tallest and the shortest man she ever came across! “Toujours le même" is the Lowell motto, I have nothing to say! am half tempted to commit some unheard of deed, for nothing but to rouse up this sleeping town, not even a precious morsel of scandal; we are too industrious, too quiet, and too charitable to exist in the present day! Tell your brother Thomas that his picture has been vastly admired, the idea, the execution, and the frame, I am beginning to be quite jelous [sic] of it, it attracts twice as much attention as the original! In my hurry attendant on parting, I unknowingly carried away Mary’s “By The Margin, &c” I send it with this letter. I hope you have not forgot the muslin’s I left under your charge. William told us Charles was going to Pittsfield how is his health now? Pray write to me a good long letter, it is really refreshing to read one of your epistles, I feel myself almost ashamed to send this letter it is so full of nothing my faculties are all chocked [sic] up. Mother had one of her headaches yesterday but is convalescent today, and desires to be remembered to you. How does ma chère Violet do, has she felt the loss of my envious care, and attention, a vision of a “black baby” flitted by me the other day, but alas that was all. Comment se porte Monsieur F.E.A.W.? Remember me to all your family and tell Mary I wish she would find time to add a postscrip [sic] to your letter, I would write to her but I did not think she would either be pleased or edified by my correspondence.
Yours affectionately,
Caroline.
[addressed:] Miss Frances E. Appleton / Care of N. Appleton Esq. / Boston / Mass.
[pencil] mail [squiggle]
[reverse of envelope] my
Lowell June 11th 1835.
[pencil] My very -- [/pencil] Dear Fanny,
I should begin this letter with an excuse for not writing to you before (which certainly under any other circumstances would have been very ungrateful considering your late kindness,) but that when I tell you that since my arrival, my time has been entirely taken up with attending the sick bed of Mrs. Smith’s little daughter. I know you [crossed out: y] will think that excuse enough. Here I am existing in deed, but in what a state! I can hardly tell you which predominates most in my frame, flesh or sand, ye gods! what a place this is! Eyesight and hearing are things here that might be easily dispensed with, such a noise and hubbub as is surrounding us, the railroad on one side, building of barns, and institutions on the other, and blasting on all sides, silence is here unknown! Has my absence occasioned any great commotion, does the [mall?] still boast, its walking figure clothed in white, that monument of pride and poverty; and he the [misforted?], that Pelham of the dirt still lingers [he?] about the shady confines of the favoured mall, that places for nightingales and those fair maidens for thom the world has lost its charms! “My Son” in all his height of majesty and beauty visited this place a few days since with [Mrs?] [Parish?], one only record of these visit has been left, [Mrs?] Boot’s girl on there calling to see Mr Boot, obsered [sic] that she [page 2] had let in the tallest and the shortest man she ever came across! “Toujours le même" is the Lowell motto, I have nothing to say! am half tempted to commit some unheard of deed, for nothing but to rouse up this sleeping town, not even a precious morsel of scandal; we are too industrious, too quiet, and too charitable to exist in the present day! Tell your brother Thomas that his picture has been vastly admired, the idea, the execution, and the frame, I am beginning to be quite jelous [sic] of it, it attracts twice as much attention as the original! In my hurry attendant on parting, I unknowingly carried away Mary’s “By The Margin, &c” I send it with this letter. I hope you have not forgot the muslin’s I left under your charge. William told us Charles was going to Pittsfield how is his health now? Pray write to me a good long letter, it is really refreshing to read one of your epistles, I feel myself almost ashamed to send this letter it is so full of nothing my faculties are all chocked [sic] up. Mother had one of her headaches yesterday but is convalescent today, and desires to be remembered to you. How does ma chère Violet do, has she felt the loss of my envious care, and attention, a vision of a “black baby” flitted by me the other day, but alas that was all. Comment se porte Monsieur F.E.A.W.? Remember me to all your family and tell Mary I wish she would find time to add a postscrip [sic] to your letter, I would write to her but I did not think she would either be pleased or edified by my correspondence.
Yours affectionately,
Caroline.
Archives Number: 1011/002.002-002#014
U. S. National Park Service
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1011/002.002-002#014
Public domain
Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters to Frances Longfellow (1011/002.002), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, J.W. Andrews - C.F. Appleton (1011/002.002-002), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters to Frances Longfellow (1011/002.002), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, J.W. Andrews - C.F. Appleton (1011/002.002-002), (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 Catalog Number : 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
2019/05/29
06/11/1835
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, B. Incoming. (1011/002.002-002#014)
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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
Tuesday, August 29, 2023 4:20:47 PM
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 5:19:47 PM
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