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Fanny Longfellow to Emmeline Austin, 20 September 1843
Manuscript letter
Astor House New York.
Sep 20th 1843.
Although thou wast a méchante petite to ship off to Pepperell without coming near Castle Craigie leaving nothing of thyself in Boston but a bit of paper to console me thro’ the many hours I had there unprepared for my loss still will I write thee this second day of my sojourn in Vanity Fair & heap coals of [crossed out: spice] fire on thy head.
We had a gentle experience of Purgatory & Inferno in rail-cars & steamer as usual with such a crowd of travelers that 2 engines were requisite for the first & Heaven knows what strata of victims in the boat. I was requested to matronage Jane McClerd & Lydia Inglis, &, as Sumner accompanied us for the same purpose, the wedding, I felt some anxiety lest I might be considered one of the bridal party, but was greatly relieved, on arriving, to discover that I was not expected to assist. Our state room we found a degree better than the Ladies Cabin for that is the best can be said of it for the night was so warm that it was suffocating with closed window & rather dangerous with open – so that instead of sleeping I passed the time in alternately admitting & ejecting the danger of without. We found N. York bathed in very rosy light & as we neared the whay beheld a spectacle which would greatly make a foreigner [p. 2] believe he was approaching the promised land. From a market upon the water, apparently insane individuals were emptying into the river basket after basket of peaches, until the river was covered with them. We wondered & conjectured, but Sumner, with his usual zeal to approfound strange events, asked some loafer the cause, & found that they were not thrown away because crumpled but simply because the supply was greater than the demand – huge basket fulls selling for a quarter of a dollar. After this striking American fact I was amused, in Broadway, with a sign, which I thought would equally excite the wonder, perhaps terror, of a stranger. This was in huge letters: “Wigs & Scalps.” Imagine an Englishman finding this & putting in his note-book the awful discovery that the Indian customs & barbarities in America were turned to profit as well as every thing else. Henry’s name seemed to have an electrical effect upon Mr Helsen & altho’ 30 here have been turned away he contrived to give us, after a few hours waiting, an excellent parlour with bedroom adjoining. We overlook the green & still churchyard, where even the shadows seem to have fallen asleep, & refreshing tho’ it is, in this Babel, to look upon a place of rest, yet its repose & the thought of its motionless guests only makes the noisy, never-ebbing tide of life sweeping against its walls more painfully audible. What a memento mori it is, to be sure, here, where the everlasting Now seems to be worshipped with ever fresh ardour & the oil of life is consumed upon the glare of this passing day which needeth not the precious masto. Coming from the quiet [p. 3] of Cambridge, still more than from Boston, the town seems undergoing an attack of delirium & looks very much as if it needed a keeper of it would run away & do something desperate. Will you never come to Dr Elliot, I hear you impatiently asking. When I do come to him I know you will listen to nothing else I may choose to say & therefore I have kept him in a box to jump up no sooner than I desire as little Charley Pierce thought I had better do with Henry. Yesterday we arrived, as you know, & Henry proceeded forthwith (while I was trying to pick up the dropped stitches of sleep) to his mansion but found it was one of his invisible days – 3 times a week only & until 3 o’clock only he condescends to reliev his victims. This mng at 9 we went all three & after waiting some 2 hours, chatting with Mr Bates, Miss Wigglesworth, Dr Parkman (whose daughter he has brought for an examination) & finally Miss Howard, his anteroom filling gradually with other suffering mortals, the magical doors flew open, & as famed therein stood the stout Dr with shirt collar à la Byron & penetrating look as if he were enacting a tableau vivant of his portrait overhead. After Mr. Bates entered, entered Henry, & as I thought the consultation would be freer without me patiently awaited the result. This was that it was not a bad case, very similar to Charley Nortons & Sedgwicks & might be cured in a month, or rather that we might go in a month, but even that I fear is not ouvre true. Henry seems resolved to stay tho’ at first rather unwilling, the heat here is so great & he dislikes so much to desert his post. The Dr recommends [p. 4 bottom] us Staten Island & we shall probably decide to go there. Sam Ward & Dr Lieber dined with us yesterday. The former was a good deal excited & nervous & gave me one of Medora’s notes to read which was gracefully tender in French & poured foth to me in a corner, a volume of his feelings past & present. It seems such a strong attachment on both sides that I wish to hope the best of it as do Sumner & Henry, but everybody here think themselves bound to prophecy as unkindly as possible. Her mother’s unhappy example, shunned by all as she [p. 4 top] is is anything but a temptation to an evil course & is more likely to act as a warning I should think on a young girl. She shows also too well that Vice is hideous. Sarah Sedgwick looked as morally severe as possible because I praised her grace, as if even God’s gifts to her should not be admired but only considered as possible misfortunes. I hate this croaking spirit & prejudgment without justice or reason. I do not think Sam is very wise but prefer to hope, now that he is married, [p. 4 middle] (for they left me a few hours since to witness his wedding) that he may make her too happy to go astray.
[p. 1 cross] There is a dinner of 25 afterwards but Henry returns to be with me. Sally Oakey & her Thaddeus of Warsaw husband passed last ev’g with us & I am to pass tomorrow with her. Mrs Slidell & her sister have been to see me. They are both sadly changed. Espreg. line has become grimace & vivacity something of a caricature. I wish I had not seen them altho’ Mrs S is a nice woman, I know, but I should prefer to remember them as I saw them at Newport. One feels the hoofs of Time’s steed fl[??] in one’s face when one sees such [??]ger abruptly. The Willises have just been here. She is very pretty with her abundant curls & bright happy expression. Her tender looks at him seemed to me like sunshine wasted on a dial without hands. A card from a Daguerrotype artist appears requesting Henry to sit for his portrait which shall be presented him as remuneration for the trouble. Think of Apollo’s sending him such a civil message.
21 st
[p. 4 middle] 21st The bright idea has just come to me that Father can frank this so I omit further crossing. I am wilting under this heat & your false Dr has not come as he promised to shew us lodgings at Staten Island. It is too expensive to live here with a parlour so we are puzzled what to do. Boarding-house table d’hotes are horrid bores & a farm-house on the island will be healthier at this trying season.
Henry & Sumner report the wedding as very brilliant & like a scene out of Wilkelm Meister with the magnificent chateau, the elegant Papa, the ill-famed Mamma, the rich bequest, picturesque Medora handing Sam his coffee after dinner the other damsels in white following, & tout ça not omitting the black servants at gate & hall with bouquets & livery. Dr Wainwright married them. But with all this splendor they felt a shadow over all – it was rather a worldly than holy marriage. I say this to you confidentially. I have a letter from Mary from the Isle of Wight where she has seen the Queen’s nose & admired Prince Albert’s beauty.
[p. 5] I had a long walk with Henry up Broadway last ev’g & thought it very like Oxford St. in shops & crowd. But such care-worn faces & feverish paces peculiar to N. York & its money-driven wretches. You know how this place sickens me, generally, but I find the magic of happiness can turn even this drop to gold & I am no longer dependant [sic] upon place. Still the Craigie is in better harmony with my feelings & I rejoice to hear from Father that he has purchased it for us.
Tom writes from Bordeaux &, Father says, (for I have not the letter) thinks he may return this Autumn. I should not be surprised, for I pray he finds wandering less amusing than he expected & is getting convinced that old friends are better than new ones.
I sometimes feel quite sad about him, for I think the gas of life is going, lacking the health-giving fountain of joy in the heart without which it soon falls dead. I hope you wrote him by the last steamer as I am sure it would give him very great comfort & pleasure. I need not ask you if you are enjoying the delightful circle at Pepperell. It is an ideal pleasure of yours, now made real, & every cnance happiness like this gives me as much delight as if I had unjustly robbed you of one & my conscience was relieved by its restoration. Give much love from us both to Mrs Ticknor & the Prescotts, Senior & Junior, & to Bessie. Mary sends hers to them all. Good bye darling.
Thy most melting but true
Fanny L.
Henry sends his love to you specially.
ADDRESSED: MISS AUSTIN / CARE OF WM. N. PRESCOTT ESQ. / PEPPERELL. / MASS.
POSTMARK: BOSTON / SEP 22 / MS
Sep 20th 1843.
Although thou wast a méchante petite to ship off to Pepperell without coming near Castle Craigie leaving nothing of thyself in Boston but a bit of paper to console me thro’ the many hours I had there unprepared for my loss still will I write thee this second day of my sojourn in Vanity Fair & heap coals of [crossed out: spice] fire on thy head.
We had a gentle experience of Purgatory & Inferno in rail-cars & steamer as usual with such a crowd of travelers that 2 engines were requisite for the first & Heaven knows what strata of victims in the boat. I was requested to matronage Jane McClerd & Lydia Inglis, &, as Sumner accompanied us for the same purpose, the wedding, I felt some anxiety lest I might be considered one of the bridal party, but was greatly relieved, on arriving, to discover that I was not expected to assist. Our state room we found a degree better than the Ladies Cabin for that is the best can be said of it for the night was so warm that it was suffocating with closed window & rather dangerous with open – so that instead of sleeping I passed the time in alternately admitting & ejecting the danger of without. We found N. York bathed in very rosy light & as we neared the whay beheld a spectacle which would greatly make a foreigner [p. 2] believe he was approaching the promised land. From a market upon the water, apparently insane individuals were emptying into the river basket after basket of peaches, until the river was covered with them. We wondered & conjectured, but Sumner, with his usual zeal to approfound strange events, asked some loafer the cause, & found that they were not thrown away because crumpled but simply because the supply was greater than the demand – huge basket fulls selling for a quarter of a dollar. After this striking American fact I was amused, in Broadway, with a sign, which I thought would equally excite the wonder, perhaps terror, of a stranger. This was in huge letters: “Wigs & Scalps.” Imagine an Englishman finding this & putting in his note-book the awful discovery that the Indian customs & barbarities in America were turned to profit as well as every thing else. Henry’s name seemed to have an electrical effect upon Mr Helsen & altho’ 30 here have been turned away he contrived to give us, after a few hours waiting, an excellent parlour with bedroom adjoining. We overlook the green & still churchyard, where even the shadows seem to have fallen asleep, & refreshing tho’ it is, in this Babel, to look upon a place of rest, yet its repose & the thought of its motionless guests only makes the noisy, never-ebbing tide of life sweeping against its walls more painfully audible. What a memento mori it is, to be sure, here, where the everlasting Now seems to be worshipped with ever fresh ardour & the oil of life is consumed upon the glare of this passing day which needeth not the precious masto. Coming from the quiet [p. 3] of Cambridge, still more than from Boston, the town seems undergoing an attack of delirium & looks very much as if it needed a keeper of it would run away & do something desperate. Will you never come to Dr Elliot, I hear you impatiently asking. When I do come to him I know you will listen to nothing else I may choose to say & therefore I have kept him in a box to jump up no sooner than I desire as little Charley Pierce thought I had better do with Henry. Yesterday we arrived, as you know, & Henry proceeded forthwith (while I was trying to pick up the dropped stitches of sleep) to his mansion but found it was one of his invisible days – 3 times a week only & until 3 o’clock only he condescends to reliev his victims. This mng at 9 we went all three & after waiting some 2 hours, chatting with Mr Bates, Miss Wigglesworth, Dr Parkman (whose daughter he has brought for an examination) & finally Miss Howard, his anteroom filling gradually with other suffering mortals, the magical doors flew open, & as famed therein stood the stout Dr with shirt collar à la Byron & penetrating look as if he were enacting a tableau vivant of his portrait overhead. After Mr. Bates entered, entered Henry, & as I thought the consultation would be freer without me patiently awaited the result. This was that it was not a bad case, very similar to Charley Nortons & Sedgwicks & might be cured in a month, or rather that we might go in a month, but even that I fear is not ouvre true. Henry seems resolved to stay tho’ at first rather unwilling, the heat here is so great & he dislikes so much to desert his post. The Dr recommends [p. 4 bottom] us Staten Island & we shall probably decide to go there. Sam Ward & Dr Lieber dined with us yesterday. The former was a good deal excited & nervous & gave me one of Medora’s notes to read which was gracefully tender in French & poured foth to me in a corner, a volume of his feelings past & present. It seems such a strong attachment on both sides that I wish to hope the best of it as do Sumner & Henry, but everybody here think themselves bound to prophecy as unkindly as possible. Her mother’s unhappy example, shunned by all as she [p. 4 top] is is anything but a temptation to an evil course & is more likely to act as a warning I should think on a young girl. She shows also too well that Vice is hideous. Sarah Sedgwick looked as morally severe as possible because I praised her grace, as if even God’s gifts to her should not be admired but only considered as possible misfortunes. I hate this croaking spirit & prejudgment without justice or reason. I do not think Sam is very wise but prefer to hope, now that he is married, [p. 4 middle] (for they left me a few hours since to witness his wedding) that he may make her too happy to go astray.
[p. 1 cross] There is a dinner of 25 afterwards but Henry returns to be with me. Sally Oakey & her Thaddeus of Warsaw husband passed last ev’g with us & I am to pass tomorrow with her. Mrs Slidell & her sister have been to see me. They are both sadly changed. Espreg. line has become grimace & vivacity something of a caricature. I wish I had not seen them altho’ Mrs S is a nice woman, I know, but I should prefer to remember them as I saw them at Newport. One feels the hoofs of Time’s steed fl[??] in one’s face when one sees such [??]ger abruptly. The Willises have just been here. She is very pretty with her abundant curls & bright happy expression. Her tender looks at him seemed to me like sunshine wasted on a dial without hands. A card from a Daguerrotype artist appears requesting Henry to sit for his portrait which shall be presented him as remuneration for the trouble. Think of Apollo’s sending him such a civil message.
21 st
[p. 4 middle] 21st The bright idea has just come to me that Father can frank this so I omit further crossing. I am wilting under this heat & your false Dr has not come as he promised to shew us lodgings at Staten Island. It is too expensive to live here with a parlour so we are puzzled what to do. Boarding-house table d’hotes are horrid bores & a farm-house on the island will be healthier at this trying season.
Henry & Sumner report the wedding as very brilliant & like a scene out of Wilkelm Meister with the magnificent chateau, the elegant Papa, the ill-famed Mamma, the rich bequest, picturesque Medora handing Sam his coffee after dinner the other damsels in white following, & tout ça not omitting the black servants at gate & hall with bouquets & livery. Dr Wainwright married them. But with all this splendor they felt a shadow over all – it was rather a worldly than holy marriage. I say this to you confidentially. I have a letter from Mary from the Isle of Wight where she has seen the Queen’s nose & admired Prince Albert’s beauty.
[p. 5] I had a long walk with Henry up Broadway last ev’g & thought it very like Oxford St. in shops & crowd. But such care-worn faces & feverish paces peculiar to N. York & its money-driven wretches. You know how this place sickens me, generally, but I find the magic of happiness can turn even this drop to gold & I am no longer dependant [sic] upon place. Still the Craigie is in better harmony with my feelings & I rejoice to hear from Father that he has purchased it for us.
Tom writes from Bordeaux &, Father says, (for I have not the letter) thinks he may return this Autumn. I should not be surprised, for I pray he finds wandering less amusing than he expected & is getting convinced that old friends are better than new ones.
I sometimes feel quite sad about him, for I think the gas of life is going, lacking the health-giving fountain of joy in the heart without which it soon falls dead. I hope you wrote him by the last steamer as I am sure it would give him very great comfort & pleasure. I need not ask you if you are enjoying the delightful circle at Pepperell. It is an ideal pleasure of yours, now made real, & every cnance happiness like this gives me as much delight as if I had unjustly robbed you of one & my conscience was relieved by its restoration. Give much love from us both to Mrs Ticknor & the Prescotts, Senior & Junior, & to Bessie. Mary sends hers to them all. Good bye darling.
Thy most melting but true
Fanny L.
Henry sends his love to you specially.
ADDRESSED: MISS AUSTIN / CARE OF WM. N. PRESCOTT ESQ. / PEPPERELL. / MASS.
POSTMARK: BOSTON / SEP 22 / MS
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-013#022
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#022
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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
09/20/1843
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1843. (1011/002.001-013#022)
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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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