File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 10 September 1850 (b06442d3-ced3-4d4f-b738-99491f4e4307).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-020#030

Cambridge Sept 10th /50
Dearest friend,
I cannot remember whether I have written you before, or not, since our return from Nahant, for the weather the past week has been so oppressively warm & I have had so much to do & have felt so miserably that I hardly have had any wits at all.
We sent for our easy Cambridge landen & came up very comfortably by the pretty Malden hills, a week last Saturday, & found home looking charmingly, but the heat very trying after our cool summer. It seemed to take away all the strength I had gained, & I had besides a good deal to prepare, for I have lately felt as if something would happen any moment, I have written to Mrs Blake to be sure & not fail to come to me the last week of this month. I was so stupid in giving you [p. 2] a little lace for the shirts they will have to go without, unless my nurse can [crossed out: find] get time to sew it on, for I find it gives me the neuralgia & very week eyes to sew much steadily – then I have been bothered about the little robes, for I followed your pattern exactly (tho’ by diligent hunting several of my old ones have turned up luckily) & they are at least half a foot too short. I think you must have altered them without remembering it. I cannot take the trouble to have another dozen made, so shall keep them for nightgowns, & day too, when nobody is by, letting the flannel petticoat dangle beautifully below. Fortunately, it is very little matter, as they are not needed for long, & can afford to be spoiled better than the second set. But enough of such maternal troubles – tho’ I must say all this fuss & preparation is very annoying after one has had a respite from it. As one’s children get older, fortunately their clothes are less & less a trouble, but then their tempers have to be clothed upon with ma [p. 3] terials of ten times as important durability, so it is a never-ceasing labor – tho’ of love. I have had very good nights on the whole, & tolerably comfortable days, but a general rheumatic feeling & inability to take much exercise annoys me a good deal. Still I have no reason to complain, I suffer so much less than others. Aunt Sam has given me a beautiful bassinet, lined with rose-color & complete (upon a stand) with pillows blankets &c, a very tasteful affair, so I shall not need the old one & have not sent for it.
We have just heard from Mary that Robert is promoted to be Governor General of the Leeward Islands, with a salary of 3,000 pounds (about $15.000) a year, which is so far beyond my income, ours united not being more than 3. to 4. that it seems quite grand to me. He has been at Antigua with half this salary & half his old one since Spring, but has now the official announcement. She will go to him, with the children, early [p. 4] in October, for the winter, & possibly come here next summer. She has been all summer on the sea-coast of Wales, among some very kind relatives, but found it rather dull & is evidently homesick. The Bulwers have been in Boston at the Albion, glad to retreat from the din of Newport, & Henry dined with them the other day at the Everetts with the Sidney Brooks’ & Frothinghams. To my astonishment they dropped in here for a friendly evening lately, which was very civil as I had not felt equal to going into Boston to call on her. Lady B. is very easy & pleasant (tho’ with strangely unladylike ways of holding herself, rubbing her face & neck &c) & so in far Henry & the young secretary. They must have found it very dull in town, but seemed charmed with Boston, “so English & the Park so like Green Park,” & intend to return there after a tour to Niagara which they were to begin today. I was so sorry neither Papa nor Tom were at home to give the gentlemen the entrée to some Club, for they carried off books from us as if glad of them, & she asked when people would return. Sumner was telling us [p. 5] of some delightful visitors from the South he saw at the Revere. What a pity they cannot be distributed over the winter, when they would be so welcome. He (S.) has gone to Newport for recreation, & Tom is likewise there, seeing out the season. Someone told us of an Albanian costume at the ball which I thought might be his. Papa & Harriot return this week. I told you, did I not? of his visit to Newport & Dr Greenes applications -? They benefited him, but must be continued, I suppose, pretty faithfully – Father says climate makes no difference with this trouble, otherwise I should think he would be tempted to visit Robert, but he had enough of the tropics last year.
Is it not a relief to have the new States in, at last, in any fashion, after this long clash of words? How useless seem all the speeches beside the potency of votes which they might have given months ago. It is to be hoped there will not be another such disgraceful session, but [p. 6] it is a bad precedent. And such a handful of southerners bullying this great nation with “your money or your life” – It is humiliating.
Did I tell you what a charming fète we had at the Tudors just before we left Nahant, with children dancing on the lawn to the music of a band & young ladies polking in the drawing room, & everything successful about it, & the huge nursery opening on the piazza with six beds with white muslin curtains like the little dwarfs in the mountain? I got a quiet seat & enjoyed it much, as did also the children. Madame has often failed before with such attempts, so every body congratulated her, & she looked quite stately & handsome & he like an old Marquis with his silvery locks.
The terrible Cambridge tragedy still seems to darken our sky – tho’ it is a great comfort to know the poor Dr seemed to die penitent He wrote a letter to Dr Parkman (the Rev) entreating that some softer feelings might at least be recovered towards his family, that his wife & children were wholly inno [p. 7] cent & that she had often expressed her gratitude to him for his (the Rev’s) help in her spiritual culture. I hear she is tranquil, but what their plans are I know not. I should think they would go to Fayal as here they cannot move without attracting attention.
Kenyon sent me a beautifully got-up vol of poems lately with about the usual merit. I am now reading Leih Hunt’s autobiography which is gossipy & pleasant, full of kindly feeling.
What a welcome Jenny Lind is getting. I am glad of it. I like such enthusiasm for an artist & a good creature. No Queen could get it – It is pure love of excellence, tho’ of course mingled with mere fashion. I always write too much to you, & then repent it, but I cannot bear to stop. I trust your anxieties are lessened – in fact you told me so in your last – so I shall hope they remain so, & that every comfort, if not every blessing, may still be yours.
Our love to [??] & thanks for the flower – with Henrys to you, ever thy true
Fanny
[p. 8] I went over this afternoon to see Mrs Bowen & congratulate her on the young Professor, about 6 weeks old, but found her too busy moving to see me. She goes, with the Austins, to your old house above us, a very pleasant arrangement I should think, tho’ Bowen says she feels rather nervous about it on account of Henry’s lines on the house – “The Open Window.”
I hear Mrs Webster is ill in bed & has been for some time – no wonder poor woman! Mr Everett has written a letter of neighborly sympathy to be signed by us all. They girls were seen wending their way to church on Sunday shrouded in their black veils & the deeper gloom of their dreadful destiny. What a year in those young lives! with their weekly visit to the prison, which Sumner says is as dismal as any Inquisition, & this last awful memory! The Danas (young Richard) live here & came in to see us last night. She has a soft pleasing manner, he I always like. I must say good bye.
Henry Greenough & Fanny are here but I have not seen them. The others board at Feltons & they take the house

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