File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 2 November 1857 (8f95cc1f-33d2-432b-aca1-09b75e15cd64).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-027#013

Cambridge Oct Nov 2d /57
Dear Mary,
I am very glad you were able to get to Manchester in time to enjoy the treasures of Art there heaped up, like the jewels in Aladdin's garden. How I envy you seeing these! Nothing I miss so much in this new world as the best pictures. Music now comes to us, but those cannot, tho’ we are to be favored with specimens of modern English & French art regularly, - but I love the ‘grand old masters’ and care not for Ruskin’s sneers at them. His school of Pre-Raphaelites miss all the poetry of the art, in their foolish mania for detail, and they cannot get the saintly grace of expression when art was a religion & an act of devotion. [p. 2] Charley Norton has written an account of the Exhibition in our new Magazine, which is a little à la Ruskin, not in style, but in theory. He thinks “the three Maries” show coarse, vulgar grief, with no elevation in it, but its genuineness I suppose touches the multitude. It must have been pleasant meeting so many friends there. I hope you saw Florence Nightingale, who I see by the paper, was there the last days. Henry has, in our new Magazine, a poem, written some time since, on her as Santa Philomena (Nightingale), which I hope you will like. There really was such a saint.
Did you think to hunt up the Baylor’s? I hope so, for Mr B. writes Henry that his wife is entirely prostrated by the news of her mother’s death, & feels much being among strangers at such a time. She has [p. 3] friends there too, but does not feel able to see them, but you, as my sister, I suppose she might have felt glad to see. Her mother was a sad invalid for many years, & her death is a great blessing to her, but Loulie was very much with her both before & after her marriage, & will be distressed to have been away at the last.
We had a very pleasant little dinner, the other day, for Mrs Kemble & Sally, Em & Sam, Mr & Mrs Ritchie, (Cornelia Wadsworth), young Sturgis of London (Russell’s son), Tom, & Lowell & his bride. The latter we were all disappointed in, as neither pretty nor attractive, - and regret all the more he did not marry Jane Norton. Mrs Ritchie looked beautifully, & is charmingly natural & lively. Sally B. too was much admired, in a pretty dress her mamma gave her, who was in her [p. 4] most amiable mood. I displayed the pretty Sèvre Tom got me, & the light & the flowers & the [crossed out: pretty] lovely ladies gave it a very festive air, a pleasant interlude in a week of dreary storm.
Tom will, I hope, get into his house next week. I have sent a woman to wash the floors, & it now only needs Mr Paul’s manipulations on carpets & curtains. He will much enjoy hanging up his pictures, & fortunately we have a new touch of Indian summer now to make it more cheerful for him.
Miss Davie has come out to dine, & tells us of Lawrence’s long attempts at Mrs Tudor’s portrait - &c &c. I have left her to finish this. Money is hard to get still, but will come bye & bye. Emmeline is shy of giving a ball to her bride, at such a dull time – I hope you will be in London poor Mrs Crawford, whose noble husband is dead, if you can. Love to all
Affly Fanny E.L.
[p. 1 cross] Prof Rogers writes that Sumner is not well enough to come home, cannot meet his cares in Congress – How slow will be his cure.

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