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Fanny Longfellow to Matilda Lieber, 4 September 1843
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Sep 4th 1843.
Dear Matilda,
I am ashamed to have been so long thanking you for your kind & precious remembrance of me with all the “good” wishes it was intended to express. You could not have sent me a gift I should value as I do this ring, for when I see your hair in it I feel that you are not far off- & think how lately it was looking into your eyes or resting upon your brow.
Since my marriage I have been journeying east & west, as your husband has told you, & my pen is devoted now so wholly to the service of another, for Henry is unable to use his eyes at present, that I think I have a tolerable excuse for not writing sooner. It gave us great pleasure to enjoy the wonders of Catskill with Franz, & I am glad we have been able to see so much of him, that he &Henry may become thoroughly acquainted. Last night he drank his last cup of tea with us. I cannot see him at our table beneath our roof without longing for your presence likewise dear Matilda. When may I welcome you here &show you in what a fine, old historical mansion I dwell, &how happy I look in it? I am beginning to understand the great [p. 2] satisfaction there lies in the character of hostess, & am impatient to embrace all my friends in my hospitality. Franz will tell you that my husband’s dear band of friends have a free entrée at all hours, & I endeavor to make the change as little grievous to them as possible. I need not say much to you about my happiness as wife. You can so well understand how broad & deep & daily increasing it becomes. I feel that I am now fulfilling my destiny upon this earth, &that is saying much when so many look restlessly & discontented towards another state of existence, calling this a failure. But woman’s world, when secured is to her perfect & complete, & her duties in it delight as well as satisfy her heart—she is no Alexander to sigh for another.
Still I do not wonder that you sigh often for a different sphere than you are in- chiefly because your husband craves it. I trust, with all my heart, that your long hunger for friendship &society will be appeased before many years. I am here surrounded by such choice friends- with such active minds & hearts, that I can feel how great a blessing they are & how much you must suffer from the want of such. I wish you were looking with me from our Library window & could see how gracefully the Charles loiters to the sea through green meadows, &how large vessels sometimes glide with [p. 3] him & at full tide how lake-like he becomes. We have got to love so much this old house with its fine views & associations (Washington slept where I am now writing) that I think Father will buy it for us to abide in always.
The heat is so oppressive, today, that my pen refuses to move- nothing but the desire to thank you for your ring could have made me take it, instead of a fan, into my hand. A few steamers ago came a letter to me from Fanny Brooks. She was in the happy state which never wanes with her, & seems much encouraged about her husband’s health. They pass the summer in Switzerland. I have been gladdened by continually improving accounts from Mary. She has a lovely little girl called Eva which she has been able to nurse, & is strong & blooming again. Tom has left her for the Pyrenees. Of your other friends Franz can report better than I. Did he write you how Newton days were brought to mind by my showing him a note of his enclosing the tail from Oscar’s caw[?] he asked to lament the lop of so pathetically?
His sonnet to you is very beautiful is it not? I wonder if Petrarch would have written one to Laura after as many years of matrimony. I am glad to know men can preserve this chivalric sentiment so long & faithfully. It is a happy omen—not that I need any such- but it is a pleasant fact among married experiences.
Give many kisses to your children from their unknown well-wisher, & believe me, dear Matilda, with Henry’s kind regards, ever yr true & affte
Fanny Longfellow.
ADDRESSED: MRS LIEBER. CARE OF PROFESSOR LIEBER./ COLUMBIA/ S. C.
POSTAGE: 25
POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE / SEP 5 / MS.
Dear Matilda,
I am ashamed to have been so long thanking you for your kind & precious remembrance of me with all the “good” wishes it was intended to express. You could not have sent me a gift I should value as I do this ring, for when I see your hair in it I feel that you are not far off- & think how lately it was looking into your eyes or resting upon your brow.
Since my marriage I have been journeying east & west, as your husband has told you, & my pen is devoted now so wholly to the service of another, for Henry is unable to use his eyes at present, that I think I have a tolerable excuse for not writing sooner. It gave us great pleasure to enjoy the wonders of Catskill with Franz, & I am glad we have been able to see so much of him, that he &Henry may become thoroughly acquainted. Last night he drank his last cup of tea with us. I cannot see him at our table beneath our roof without longing for your presence likewise dear Matilda. When may I welcome you here &show you in what a fine, old historical mansion I dwell, &how happy I look in it? I am beginning to understand the great [p. 2] satisfaction there lies in the character of hostess, & am impatient to embrace all my friends in my hospitality. Franz will tell you that my husband’s dear band of friends have a free entrée at all hours, & I endeavor to make the change as little grievous to them as possible. I need not say much to you about my happiness as wife. You can so well understand how broad & deep & daily increasing it becomes. I feel that I am now fulfilling my destiny upon this earth, &that is saying much when so many look restlessly & discontented towards another state of existence, calling this a failure. But woman’s world, when secured is to her perfect & complete, & her duties in it delight as well as satisfy her heart—she is no Alexander to sigh for another.
Still I do not wonder that you sigh often for a different sphere than you are in- chiefly because your husband craves it. I trust, with all my heart, that your long hunger for friendship &society will be appeased before many years. I am here surrounded by such choice friends- with such active minds & hearts, that I can feel how great a blessing they are & how much you must suffer from the want of such. I wish you were looking with me from our Library window & could see how gracefully the Charles loiters to the sea through green meadows, &how large vessels sometimes glide with [p. 3] him & at full tide how lake-like he becomes. We have got to love so much this old house with its fine views & associations (Washington slept where I am now writing) that I think Father will buy it for us to abide in always.
The heat is so oppressive, today, that my pen refuses to move- nothing but the desire to thank you for your ring could have made me take it, instead of a fan, into my hand. A few steamers ago came a letter to me from Fanny Brooks. She was in the happy state which never wanes with her, & seems much encouraged about her husband’s health. They pass the summer in Switzerland. I have been gladdened by continually improving accounts from Mary. She has a lovely little girl called Eva which she has been able to nurse, & is strong & blooming again. Tom has left her for the Pyrenees. Of your other friends Franz can report better than I. Did he write you how Newton days were brought to mind by my showing him a note of his enclosing the tail from Oscar’s caw[?] he asked to lament the lop of so pathetically?
His sonnet to you is very beautiful is it not? I wonder if Petrarch would have written one to Laura after as many years of matrimony. I am glad to know men can preserve this chivalric sentiment so long & faithfully. It is a happy omen—not that I need any such- but it is a pleasant fact among married experiences.
Give many kisses to your children from their unknown well-wisher, & believe me, dear Matilda, with Henry’s kind regards, ever yr true & affte
Fanny Longfellow.
ADDRESSED: MRS LIEBER. CARE OF PROFESSOR LIEBER./ COLUMBIA/ S. C.
POSTAGE: 25
POSTMARK: CAMBRIDGE / SEP 5 / MS.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-013#017
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#017
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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
09/04/1843
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1843. (1011/002.001-013#017)
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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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