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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 15 November 1846
Manuscript letter
Craigie Castle
Nov 15th 1846.
It was so dismal, dearest, to have a steamer arrive without a word of greeting from the other side, & to be besieged by questions of news which we could not give, that I feel guilty for my own many sins of omission & cannot complain that I am punished homeopathically. But, in our quiet life, a fortnight embraces so little, that it seems almost foolish to scribble about nothing, yet why should I call passing events of more worth than a word of love which is always welcome & “twice blessed”? Past times have been very vividly present to me the last few days, since Emmeline wrote me of the death of Susan Gilliatt. Though I have seen nothing of her of late years, except the summer we were at Newport, yet I can never forget the vision of beauty & elegance she was to my girlish eyes when at our house, & her winning amiability, & mother’s interest in her [p. 2] have made me continue to love her. She is still before me in her white morning gown, so nicely plaited, with the black velvet ribbon round her snowy throat, & her sunny hair & rose-shell complexion, which she has never lost. It seemed to me, I remember, like a chapter out of a romance the picture we once had of herself & her handsome husband in their picturesque mansion at Newport – I dont mean Miss Stuart’s horrible daub, but the reality. She leaves 8 children! What a blow to her mother who was so bound up in her - & to them all!
Poor Mrs Baker, Harriet’s friend, has been severely afflicted since her return. She lost a child just before she went to Europe, another there, & lately her last remaining one. All the pleasant voices of her home hushed. What a sepulchre must her house & heart seem to her. I recall some beautiful words of Sumner that the world appeared to him like a vast sick chamber, & he did not venture to move carelessly or speak loudly for fear of disturbing some sufferer. It does indeed seem so at times, & I fear I have forgotten too much of late years that the bitter tides of sorrow cover more space than the smiling, rejoicing land – it has looked to me so full of beautiful & happy life. Emmeline’s sad experin [p. 3] ce, however, often tempers my too confident hopes, but I find it much harder now, so acclimated do we become to our own fortune, to sympathise with her utter despondency & hopelessness. She is a conscientious martyr in suffering, & holds her hand in the fire to harden herself to endure the torture to which her whole frame may be subjected, that is, although her last accounts have been more favorable than any previous ones, she will not enjoy them, fearing worse afterwards. I try to encourage her by recalling the many persons we know who have escaped from this mental excitement, & remain perfectly sane, but she refuses to be comforted, believing, which may be true, that after paralysis there is less reason to expect a cure. She probably goes to N. York in a few days & was to have passed today with me but has disappointed me. I had a letter lately from Mrs Lieber. She was greatly touched by your remembering her, never expecting to hear from you again. Her warm heart clings to us as fondly as ever.
Is it true that Miss Barrett is engaged to Browning? They are both too peculiar to come together.
We have established a cosy, little, whist club – the Kents, Dixwells, Feltons & ourselves. We all play equally indifferently, which is a comfort, & meet for merry talk as much as the game. They met here first, night before last, & we had a little sit down supper of oysters & partridges which was very pleasant. Judge Kent is very merry.
If you ever have occasion to have a tooth pulled you must come here to have it done! A dentist has [p. 4] discovered a gas which, without any injury, causes insensibility long enough to extract teeth. He is hard at work, as you may suppose, all day long, & has assistants to help him so great is the crowd – rows of people are put in happy oblivion, & then administered to. Lizzy Ticknor has had two very bad teeth thus taken out without pain. Very severe operations at the Hospital countenanced by that arch-sceptic Dr Warren, have been performed, by the gas being renewed as long as a quarter of an hour.
Winthrop is re-elected, despite the lovers of peace, by a large majority. Mr Webster helped it by, in my opinion, a very absurd speech – acknowledging the base injustice of the war & everybody’s abhorrence of it except the President who made it, & yet pretending we could not help carrying it on, as if it were ever too late to retreat from a wrong action, & as if those were not responsible for it who voted supplies to support it. Dr Howe consented to be peace candidate, Sumner reposing, having no inclination for political life. I went the other night to a ball at Miss Inches – the old ladies. I enjoyed the many familiar faces. Harriet Appleton was one of the prettiest damsels. Her mother gives a ball for her on Tuesday. The children are a great delight to me now; Charlie has grown very affectionate, & prattles so cunningly, & is so happy in hearing stories. He is quite fascinated with Emma Darwin’s little book, which is nearly read threadbare. The last story, about the guard jumping on behind the coach, &c, is an ever fresh delight. Little Erny pulls himself up at my knee to listen too, & looks as knowing, with his bright eyes, as if he really understood it all. He almost walks [p. 1 cross] alone. I long to see them running about together. How I should like to take a peep at you all. I grieve to think Ronny will be in jacket & trousers, like Willy, before I see him. Cant you send a Daguerreotype or something of them before they are men & women.
Much love to all your family, & Robert, who I hope will soon be comforted with yr presence in London. Where is Tom? With many blessings on you & yours, dearest darling, ever thy loving
Fanny. & Henry.
Nov 15th 1846.
It was so dismal, dearest, to have a steamer arrive without a word of greeting from the other side, & to be besieged by questions of news which we could not give, that I feel guilty for my own many sins of omission & cannot complain that I am punished homeopathically. But, in our quiet life, a fortnight embraces so little, that it seems almost foolish to scribble about nothing, yet why should I call passing events of more worth than a word of love which is always welcome & “twice blessed”? Past times have been very vividly present to me the last few days, since Emmeline wrote me of the death of Susan Gilliatt. Though I have seen nothing of her of late years, except the summer we were at Newport, yet I can never forget the vision of beauty & elegance she was to my girlish eyes when at our house, & her winning amiability, & mother’s interest in her [p. 2] have made me continue to love her. She is still before me in her white morning gown, so nicely plaited, with the black velvet ribbon round her snowy throat, & her sunny hair & rose-shell complexion, which she has never lost. It seemed to me, I remember, like a chapter out of a romance the picture we once had of herself & her handsome husband in their picturesque mansion at Newport – I dont mean Miss Stuart’s horrible daub, but the reality. She leaves 8 children! What a blow to her mother who was so bound up in her - & to them all!
Poor Mrs Baker, Harriet’s friend, has been severely afflicted since her return. She lost a child just before she went to Europe, another there, & lately her last remaining one. All the pleasant voices of her home hushed. What a sepulchre must her house & heart seem to her. I recall some beautiful words of Sumner that the world appeared to him like a vast sick chamber, & he did not venture to move carelessly or speak loudly for fear of disturbing some sufferer. It does indeed seem so at times, & I fear I have forgotten too much of late years that the bitter tides of sorrow cover more space than the smiling, rejoicing land – it has looked to me so full of beautiful & happy life. Emmeline’s sad experin [p. 3] ce, however, often tempers my too confident hopes, but I find it much harder now, so acclimated do we become to our own fortune, to sympathise with her utter despondency & hopelessness. She is a conscientious martyr in suffering, & holds her hand in the fire to harden herself to endure the torture to which her whole frame may be subjected, that is, although her last accounts have been more favorable than any previous ones, she will not enjoy them, fearing worse afterwards. I try to encourage her by recalling the many persons we know who have escaped from this mental excitement, & remain perfectly sane, but she refuses to be comforted, believing, which may be true, that after paralysis there is less reason to expect a cure. She probably goes to N. York in a few days & was to have passed today with me but has disappointed me. I had a letter lately from Mrs Lieber. She was greatly touched by your remembering her, never expecting to hear from you again. Her warm heart clings to us as fondly as ever.
Is it true that Miss Barrett is engaged to Browning? They are both too peculiar to come together.
We have established a cosy, little, whist club – the Kents, Dixwells, Feltons & ourselves. We all play equally indifferently, which is a comfort, & meet for merry talk as much as the game. They met here first, night before last, & we had a little sit down supper of oysters & partridges which was very pleasant. Judge Kent is very merry.
If you ever have occasion to have a tooth pulled you must come here to have it done! A dentist has [p. 4] discovered a gas which, without any injury, causes insensibility long enough to extract teeth. He is hard at work, as you may suppose, all day long, & has assistants to help him so great is the crowd – rows of people are put in happy oblivion, & then administered to. Lizzy Ticknor has had two very bad teeth thus taken out without pain. Very severe operations at the Hospital countenanced by that arch-sceptic Dr Warren, have been performed, by the gas being renewed as long as a quarter of an hour.
Winthrop is re-elected, despite the lovers of peace, by a large majority. Mr Webster helped it by, in my opinion, a very absurd speech – acknowledging the base injustice of the war & everybody’s abhorrence of it except the President who made it, & yet pretending we could not help carrying it on, as if it were ever too late to retreat from a wrong action, & as if those were not responsible for it who voted supplies to support it. Dr Howe consented to be peace candidate, Sumner reposing, having no inclination for political life. I went the other night to a ball at Miss Inches – the old ladies. I enjoyed the many familiar faces. Harriet Appleton was one of the prettiest damsels. Her mother gives a ball for her on Tuesday. The children are a great delight to me now; Charlie has grown very affectionate, & prattles so cunningly, & is so happy in hearing stories. He is quite fascinated with Emma Darwin’s little book, which is nearly read threadbare. The last story, about the guard jumping on behind the coach, &c, is an ever fresh delight. Little Erny pulls himself up at my knee to listen too, & looks as knowing, with his bright eyes, as if he really understood it all. He almost walks [p. 1 cross] alone. I long to see them running about together. How I should like to take a peep at you all. I grieve to think Ronny will be in jacket & trousers, like Willy, before I see him. Cant you send a Daguerreotype or something of them before they are men & women.
Much love to all your family, & Robert, who I hope will soon be comforted with yr presence in London. Where is Tom? With many blessings on you & yours, dearest darling, ever thy loving
Fanny. & Henry.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-016#014
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1846 (1011/002.001-016), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1846 (1011/002.001-016), (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
2016-08-08
11/15/1846
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1846. (1011/002.001-016#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
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