File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 21 April 1857 (9fb9f4c6-70d7-4996-b0e3-3966175fb76d).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-027#010

Cambridge April 21st 1857.
Dearest Mary,
I seem to have very little to write about today, but it is too bad for a Boston steamer to go without a line. We are in the midst of a raging snow storm, howling & drifting like February. It has been a mild (till now) but very stormy April & the ground has undergone almost another deluge. Well, I suppose the farmers will rejoice. Henry has Robert’s letter for which he will thank him himself, I hope, before long, & for his great kindness in procuring for us the Rogers souvenir. We nightly think sweetly of him in enjoying his delicious guava.
[p. 2] I see in Burritt's little paper a very encouraging account of the progress of the emancipated blacks in the W. Indies, from a speech delivered by a Mr Thompson, at Manchester, quoting Mr Davy. Count Gurowski, you may remember at Newport, has written a book about us à la TocqueviIIe, very shrewd & profound, with a capital chapter on slavery, showing the fallacy of all the usual arguments in its favor. That one eye of his is more penetrating than many ordinary pairs & as he is an impartial observer his testimony is less prejudiced than those of most strangers. He does justice to what is good in us, and is justly severe on all our shortcomings private & public. Such fair criticism one reads with pleasure.
Henry has a pleasant letter from Sumner, who had just ventured into society a little – at the splendid Hotel [p. 3] of the Minister of Foreign affairs, - where, he says, “host & guests were like small insects in some vast sea-shell”. He thinks Paris was never so beautiful, but feels his weakness still as a great impediment to his enjoyment of it. I hope he will be prudent, and not over-fatigue himself. Lord Carlisle kindly invites him to Ireland. Fanny Kemble has finished her Boston & Cambridge readings. The last of the latter must have been hard for her, if she had got the news we found in the paper when we came home. That is – the death of her brother, but as she never looks at papers, & her letters could hardly have reached her, I trust she did not know it till the next morning. She was to read at Salem, & other towns, thro’ May, &, with June, “and the roses”, as she said, comes Sarah. With her she will pass the summer at Nahant, where we hope to be also.
[p. 4] I found Aunt Sam, on Saturday, busy working a baby blanket for Annie Bangs who expects her confinement in July! How she & Maria will enjoy the preparations. Charley Appleton’s baby has just been christened. Miss Davie brought out some little Tudors, the other afternoon, & gave us a flood of talk on Lent preaching &c. Mrs & Miss Tudor had been charmed by some young preacher, at the Puseyite Church, & the Bishop had forbidden Miss D., as a Sunday-school teacher, to go there for fear of being fascinated, so she had consoled herself at Pittsfield with the Calvinistic Dr Heiney, I remember at Pittsfield when a child! She says her brother has so far conquered his English shyness as to speak at public meetings, entering ardently into politics. To that class of men this country is a kind of emancipation from a narrow sphere, & they thrive under it. Good bye – keep well & strong & enjoy Brighton shore –
Love to R. & all Yr aff
Fanny –

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