File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 22 November 1853 (9fb0694e-0ac4-412a-87eb-0e53e79d49b4).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-023#021

Cambridge Nov 22d 1853.
Dear Mary,
I am glad to be able to send you a line by this steamer to say that, thanks to God, I am nearly well again & am every day gaining new strength. I have not yet driven out, nor dined down stairs but once, & feel in no haste to leave my pleasant chamber. I had a slight fever the first fortnight which kept me back as I gained nothing in that time & it nearly dried up all my milk, but I begin now to [p. 2] hope to be able to nurse my sweet little baby with some feeding. She is a very pretty little thing, & very fat & good & has, thus far, not suffered at all from so little nursing. Alice has at times touches of jealousy of her but on the whole is very fond of her & considers her like a live doll She is very well & cunning & talks most amusingly. She was highly pleased at the idea of her Welsh doll & often asks when it will come.
You may fancy our joyful surprise in seeing Tom. I was just reading your letter saying he might possibly (when I [p. 3] thought him snug back in Paris) when he walked in the door. He looks very well & I hope wont [sic] repent returning. Miss Davie is delighted with her brother’s arrival & is coming out tomorrow to drive with him here, Erny especially wishing her on his birthday. Tom tells fine stories of the children & his rambles with them & the beauty of Temby & I should think you could not be in a more health giving place & with such kind friends to cheer you better than dreary misty London at this season.
Mary Parkman has a little girl just a month younger than mine. [p. 4] We are puzzled for a name – Grace & Rose are proposed – Papa fancies the latter, romantic as it is, but Henry thinks it rather bar-maidy. I have an excellent nurse so cheerful & sweet-voiced. She went last year to Paris with Mrs Tudor & has much to say of her experiences. How I wish you had such a person to take care of you all the time. Ellen is married & begun housekeeping, & the boys have been to see her since at her wedding church. The girl, who takes her place is Irish after all, & not very satisfactory having no skills in managing children & two nervous & excitable. The boys go to a Mr Wellington’s school of about a dozen boys & like it much. Em is at the Tremont hoping to get into her [??]bank but the m[??] are regular. Mr & Mrs James have sailed for Europe
Good bye for the present. With love to all ever yr affte Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; family life; education; subject; pregnancy and childbirth; health and illness; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1853 (1011/002.001-023); (LONG-FileUnitName)