File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 9 June 1848 (989d0848-9d61-4ecd-93ef-7757b73761e6).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#018

Craigie Hall June 9th
Dearest Em,
I hope Mary’s note has made amends for my silence. I have been so busy talking up with her the long space of our separation that you must forgive me for neglecting to tell you before how I rejoiced to hear of your safe arrival with your precious treasure at Geneseo, & how fervently I thanked the benign skies for so favoring your journey. They lavished all their good will upon you, & have done nothing since but frown upon us, until I am heartily weary of the sight of the grate. I had my child’s fête on Eva’s birthday, last Saturday, & was fortunate [p. 2] in a warm day, so that it went off charmingly - & the children seemed to enjoy themselves highly in the hay & swing. They danced a little in the drawing room & supped in the big Library. Mrs Charles & James Amory came with some of theirs. Harriet Crowninshield with Fanny. Mary Tom Dwight with Master Tommy, Mrs Arnold Welles & a few other Mamas in addition to my usual number, & I was sorry I did not make more of the occasion, the day proved so fine. But the rapidity with which strawberries & ice vanished into hungry little mouths made it fortunate there were no more to supply. Last night we [p. 3] went, with Mary, to see Hernani & found a very brilliant house As we had not time to muster a party for a box we got tickets at the Tremont, & our luck threw us into Mrs Deacon’s, who laughed so coolly in the actors’ faces, & made such free remarks, I felt rather ashamed of my proximity – Julia Howe went with us. Hernani does not gain upon me. It has much wild, striking music, but is so brassy that the noise wearied me. This troupe does not compare with the one of last Spring, except in acting, which they do with more spirit & attention to their parts. Their voices are very harsh, & the dressing & whole thing, including [p. 4] orchestra, is not [crossed out: have] so finished & complete. Trupp is a pleasing young actress, but her voice wants the fullness & mellowness of Tedesco’s Renvensano does not compare with the other baritone, & is perfectly ludicrous as an actor, the loss is very powerful & peculiar – the best tenor Benedetti, I have not heard.
Yesterday I saw all the Wormleys who only arrived the day before. Mrs W. is a very pleasing person, & much prettier than any of her daughters. Elisabeth looks very well, & the other two are nice girls apparently, but with too full faces to be pretty. They were full of the French Revolution, having been there in Paris through it, & Elisabeth spoke warmly of the noble conduct of the people. Tom has written us quite a thrilling account of [p. 5] the late-attack on the Assembly by the Clubs, & rejoices to have witnessed such a scene tho’ very heartily disgusted at the time. It must have been an awful moment to hear the gathering war of the people surrounding the building, & to feel they were betrayed into their hands, to be dealt with as the worst in the community might decide, but he says the Deputies bore it with Roman primness. A disorderly club entered his tribune, & he talked with them & at them until the suffocation & danger became so troublesome he made his escape over the wall, & was refreshed by the sight of the National Guard coming at last to their rescue. I will send [p. 6] you his letter – as soon as I get it from Miss Wormeley who begged for it.
I was at a little party since you left, at Mrs Ticknors, for Miss de Rham, who I regretted much to see so little of. She pleases me much, & was such a contrast to Miss Granger, who is my horror, & who held onto poor Henry with such pertinacity that he could speak to no one else, & he said afterward there now, they will say “that is the kind of woman which pleases the men,” seeing him so bound, when it was quite au contraire! Sam Eliot & [p. 7] Ned Perkins acted a charade with spirit –
Mary has been reading me a letter from Parthy Nightingale with the wisdom of Solomon about politics. How English women, young & old, do discourse upon them. So could I in these days of da[??], when they are more interesting than aught else, but not of those of my own country, except the great broad questions of right & wrong.
Dr Channings Life is on the table but I have not yet found time to read it, or begin it. I can only drink in the [p. 8] deep delight of having Mary here, & of seeing her daily look more like herself, & of weaving together again our long dissevered web of life. She has very nice children, gentle & well behaved, - & it is like a perpetual miracle to me to see them here, playing with mine – “the new & the familiar fight within me for the mastery.” & I feel walking in a dream, but with the dear sense of a reality every day becoming clearer –
Good bye darling. With much love to Lizzy & kindest regards to Wm, who I hope is better, & many many kisses to Pic –
ever thy loving
Fan.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1848 (1011/002.001-018); (LONG-FileUnitName)