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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 15 October 1849
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Monday –
Dearest Emmeline,
I was rejoiced to hear from Elisabeth how famously you were getting on & beg you will thank her most warmly for her kindness in writing me. A fortnight has passed since the great event & I fancy you beginning to sit up a lite & enjoy a little strength after that dreary time of prostration & nervousness, so hard to bear. I congratulate you, with all my heart, upon the prospect of nursing your baby, for with all the fatigue it brings there is a peculiar delight which more than rewards the exertion. You cannot feel that yet, - during the first month it is horribly wearisome & exciting, but after that it is perfectly comfortable & a great happiness. I do hope you will be able to go on, even if the young gentleman must be fed at the same time. How I wish I could take [p. 2] a chair by your bed-side, my darling, & enjoy your convalescence & admire your new treasure. I am very glad your nurse is so satisfactory, for it is a great help to one’s recovery to have a quiet person in the room. I shall soon hope to have a few lines from your own hand, to satisfy my anxiety that you are gaining as fast as you ought. I was sorry my long letter came just when it did, for you should not have heard it all at that time. I take it for granted you had the comfort of ether through your prolonged suffering, & trust it was more effectually given than before. Miss Alexander was here a day or two ago to enquire after you, & received the good news gladly. She told me of Mrs Cunningham’s strange dislike to her child, and think it is beginning to soften a little, as she has shown some interest lately, in its clothes. It must be a kind of insanity. Miss A has seen much of the poor little thing this summer, as it was in her neighbor [p. 3] hood, & has got quite attached to it. The family are all fond of it, & it has been to pass the day at the grand house!
I suppose you have heard the wonderful piece of news from abroad – Margaret’s Fuller’s secret marriage to a young Italian Marchese, & her actual possession of a living baby a year old! Why she concealed it is a mystery not yet explained. Perhaps she was ashamed to have her surrender known, after the rather grand position she had taken about marriage-; perhaps she had a latent spring of romance which was fed by this secrecy. She writes that he has saved enough from the wreck of his fortune to pass one winter in Florence & then they come to America, where she flatters herself, with her talents, her boy can never starve. Think of the dry, forlorn old maid changed into a Marguerita Marchesa d’Ossoli! Mrs Crawford says she saw this youth often there, sometimes at breakfast (after she was married to him) without suspecting anything & as she went with her to walk [p. 4] Miss F. would say to him “I shall see you again this evening”! Matrimony & maternity [crossed out: will] have I hope improved her, & with no personal attractions to have attached a young man is a good deal in her praise. She retreated to the mountains when her child was born & she has kept the secret wonderfully.
Thursday. Divers interruptions have broken off this letter, dearest, which now I fear will not reach you this week. Hearing from Edward last night Mrs James was in Brookline we drove over there this morning but alas! could not see her. I hope she will not leave this vicinity without my having a glimpse of her rare perfections. We have asked Sam & Edward to dine here tomorrow to meet Charlie Perkins & I hope they will not disappoint us. He is looking quite stout & manly with beard & moustaches but has as innocent blue eyes as ever. Tom writes he will return immediately. Nous venons.
Yesterday I was at Mt Auburn & I never saw the trees in greater glory – they shed a holy light over it & seem like beatified spirits in their transfigured robes. I hope you are now well enough to enjoy them from yr window. Henry is busy getting ready a collection of poems – most of them you have seen.
Take great care of yourself, my precious & get strong & well again for the sake of yr
loving & true Fanny E.L.
[p. 1 cross] I suppose you have heard Pat Garot’s engagement to Charlotte Rice long ago. Mary Dixwell’s little girl is recovering.
Henry sends his love & congratulations My boys are so happy together that I am sure you will not regret you have two so near an age tho a girl is a blessing I covet for both of us!
Dearest Emmeline,
I was rejoiced to hear from Elisabeth how famously you were getting on & beg you will thank her most warmly for her kindness in writing me. A fortnight has passed since the great event & I fancy you beginning to sit up a lite & enjoy a little strength after that dreary time of prostration & nervousness, so hard to bear. I congratulate you, with all my heart, upon the prospect of nursing your baby, for with all the fatigue it brings there is a peculiar delight which more than rewards the exertion. You cannot feel that yet, - during the first month it is horribly wearisome & exciting, but after that it is perfectly comfortable & a great happiness. I do hope you will be able to go on, even if the young gentleman must be fed at the same time. How I wish I could take [p. 2] a chair by your bed-side, my darling, & enjoy your convalescence & admire your new treasure. I am very glad your nurse is so satisfactory, for it is a great help to one’s recovery to have a quiet person in the room. I shall soon hope to have a few lines from your own hand, to satisfy my anxiety that you are gaining as fast as you ought. I was sorry my long letter came just when it did, for you should not have heard it all at that time. I take it for granted you had the comfort of ether through your prolonged suffering, & trust it was more effectually given than before. Miss Alexander was here a day or two ago to enquire after you, & received the good news gladly. She told me of Mrs Cunningham’s strange dislike to her child, and think it is beginning to soften a little, as she has shown some interest lately, in its clothes. It must be a kind of insanity. Miss A has seen much of the poor little thing this summer, as it was in her neighbor [p. 3] hood, & has got quite attached to it. The family are all fond of it, & it has been to pass the day at the grand house!
I suppose you have heard the wonderful piece of news from abroad – Margaret’s Fuller’s secret marriage to a young Italian Marchese, & her actual possession of a living baby a year old! Why she concealed it is a mystery not yet explained. Perhaps she was ashamed to have her surrender known, after the rather grand position she had taken about marriage-; perhaps she had a latent spring of romance which was fed by this secrecy. She writes that he has saved enough from the wreck of his fortune to pass one winter in Florence & then they come to America, where she flatters herself, with her talents, her boy can never starve. Think of the dry, forlorn old maid changed into a Marguerita Marchesa d’Ossoli! Mrs Crawford says she saw this youth often there, sometimes at breakfast (after she was married to him) without suspecting anything & as she went with her to walk [p. 4] Miss F. would say to him “I shall see you again this evening”! Matrimony & maternity [crossed out: will] have I hope improved her, & with no personal attractions to have attached a young man is a good deal in her praise. She retreated to the mountains when her child was born & she has kept the secret wonderfully.
Thursday. Divers interruptions have broken off this letter, dearest, which now I fear will not reach you this week. Hearing from Edward last night Mrs James was in Brookline we drove over there this morning but alas! could not see her. I hope she will not leave this vicinity without my having a glimpse of her rare perfections. We have asked Sam & Edward to dine here tomorrow to meet Charlie Perkins & I hope they will not disappoint us. He is looking quite stout & manly with beard & moustaches but has as innocent blue eyes as ever. Tom writes he will return immediately. Nous venons.
Yesterday I was at Mt Auburn & I never saw the trees in greater glory – they shed a holy light over it & seem like beatified spirits in their transfigured robes. I hope you are now well enough to enjoy them from yr window. Henry is busy getting ready a collection of poems – most of them you have seen.
Take great care of yourself, my precious & get strong & well again for the sake of yr
loving & true Fanny E.L.
[p. 1 cross] I suppose you have heard Pat Garot’s engagement to Charlotte Rice long ago. Mary Dixwell’s little girl is recovering.
Henry sends his love & congratulations My boys are so happy together that I am sure you will not regret you have two so near an age tho a girl is a blessing I covet for both of us!
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-019#028
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1849 (1011/002.001-019), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1849 (1011/002.001-019), (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
10/15/1849
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1849. (1011/002.001-019#028)
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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 5:57:22 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:57:22 PM
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