File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 2 November 1850 (8add3743-b527-4f33-aba2-ab2658232254).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-020#032

Cambridge Nov 2d 1850
Dearest Mary,
I take advantage of the first certain link between us & your distant island to tell you (if you have not heard it already) that I am the happy Mamma of a very nice little girl, from six weeks ago today. I had a very expeditious labor for me (only two hours) relieved by ether & got up remarkably well, never before with so little nervous w[e]akness. For the first week (Goody Blake being engaged) I had a chatty Scotch nurse from Dumfries full of stories of Mrs Burns & the poet. and The ponderous tread of Mrs B. (Blake I mean) is still trying the timbers of the house. She considers the baby remarkably fat & vigorous for its age. It is a great laugher, & has a very expressive little face already, with dark blue eyes, & an inclination to look like Henry I think. You may imagine how grateful & happy we are in this arrival as if our secret prayer had been answered, [p. 2] but my joy is more tempered than it was formerly, & I dare not trust dwelling upon the future. God has been very merciful to us in so healing our wounds, & I feel this to be a most holy gift.
We are very anxious to hear of your arrival & are glad you had a fine steamer to shorten the youage for you. How rejoiced Robert must have been to welcome you all & see the wonderful changes which take place in children from year to year. It must be strange to them too to renew their old associations after an interval of such different life.
We had lately sent us a book on domestic life in India, with sketches of everything in detail, & I entered at once into the manifold discomforts & trials of tropical life, which, like its insects, disfigure the forground[?] while behind glows the splendor of its climate & scenery. But the defenses against annoyance seem equal to their need, & doubtless people soon get used to their necessity as we do to furnaces & double windows & all the demands [p. 3] of our severe winter.
Papa talks a little of visiting you, but probably will tell you, by this steamer, how seriously he thinks of it. He looks better in the way of complexion & flesh, but still coughs a great deal, & his throat has made no permanent gain. He sometimes thinks climate affects it very little, but certainly is worse during damp weather, & yesterday (which I passed in town) I noticed how much the heavy atmosphere irritated his cough. It is very sad[?] & trying to us all to see him so annoyed & for so long a time. Tom is at home, but talks, as usual of sailing in the next steamer. He is really grown a portly gentleman, but I cannot get used to his size & older look & think constantly it must go away. Emmeline’s last letter brought the good news of Elisabeth Ws engagement to Murray[?]! What a romance that has been! She did not hear of his being in England until she had been there(or in Scotland rather) for some weeks, neither did he of her arrival so near him – when he did, he immediately rushed to her, & tho she hesitated a little, having her old reluctance to [p. 4] give up home & country which made her refuse him after her father’s death, still when they once met true love triumphed, as it deserved, after fifteen years constancy, & they are now supremely happy. She was staying with his friends, who received her very warmly & was to be married & go to Egypt with him, this winter, if he were ordered back there! Mr & Mrs Jam[??] to sail soon to be present at the wedding! Their meeting was most romantic after such a long parting, but this Egypt finale is too [??] dramatic. With so much to content him in England I do not see the necessity of his going further. But all this makes a sad change in poor Emmeline’s happiness. Lizzy has been such a comfort to her, & now to lose her when her own lot is growing darker every hour. Her husband is failing body & mind, & the only fear may be the former may outlive the latter. She has been very solitary this summer, nursing him alone, & Mrs James who is much with her when at Geneseo may stay behind to cheer my poor darling. She is a very lovely person in every way & Em is very fond of her; but still, as she has many children to take up her time, Lizzy was much more to [crossed out: her] Em. What shall I call my baby? We incline [p.1 cross] to Alice – how do you like it? Uncle Wm is nominated for Congress next winter! Poor Marianne is still very ill & they are very [???] about her. Nelly is about to be engaged, we hear, to a son of Joe Coolidge a very good fellow. She is much better. Jenny Lind is still triumphing. Have not heard her. Good bye darling for the present. Much love to Robert & many kisses to the chicks for me & [??] Henry’s love.
ever yr affte
Fanny E. L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; family life; health and illness; social life; pregnancy and childbirth; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1850 (1011/002.001-020); (LONG-FileUnitName)