File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Harriot Coffin (Sumner) Appleton, 20 July 1851 (a48e0735-9d34-48af-92de-e7e5bcc6dafd).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#026

Nahant July 20th 1851.
My dear Harriot,
I hope, by this time, you are quite free from all the consequences of the voyage, which I am very sorry should have marred some of your London enjoyments, & are able to relish everything to your heart’s content. It must have been a relief to you to find papa looking so well, as Mr Amory says he found him, & his cough, tho’ so troublesome, not increasing as I infer from Jewett’s reports of the Doctor’s opinions. I hope you feel repaid for the exertion of going by all you have seen & the pleasure it must have given papa to have you & Hatty with him. I have seen none of your letters as yet – so have no [p. 2] idea how you like the other side & whether you are not daily wishing yourself back again. I have written to your mother to beg her to send me some news of you.
We are in our old quarters here, comfortable enough for the hot weather, & the children thriving as usual on their bountiful meals & plenty of fresh air – Baby has not suffered from the change & is growing quite ruddy & brown in the sea-air. She creeps everywhere & will soon be upon her feet. Mrs James Amory occupies the next house for the present, on account of her little girl’s health, who is in a wasting condition apparently, unable to be nourished by her [p. 3] food, but she hopes this air will benefit her. Aunt Wm came down with her & we saw a good deal of her for a few days. Mrs Paige is attentive as usual, but as we have no vehicle this summer, we do not see so much of our neighbors as before, meeting them chiefly at church. I wish Hatty would favor me with a line now & then, about any thing she sees, but I suppose she is too busy writing to Naty. Charley & Erny send her much love & wish they could write.
Sam Longfellow is going to Europe some time in August as companion & instructor to Charley Appleton, & it is a plan which pleases us much & will benefit both I think. I am greatly hurried at this [p. 4] moment, for we have a good many interruptions here, I write this hurried scrawl as a congratulations merely on your safe arrival & an expression of my best wishes for your enjoyment of your visit. Your mother doubtless gives you all the news. I do not write to papa this time, so give him my best love & best hopes that he is not over fatiguing himself. he must write to Mary when he can.
affly yours
Fanny E.L.
Henry’s & chicks love –

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; social life; travel; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1851 (1011/002.001-021); (LONG-FileUnitName)