File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary Narcissa (Barrett) Bent, 25 February 1859 (09983176-1ab8-454a-b50a-b3f0bf655bac).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-029#007

Cambridge Feb 25th /59
My dear Narcissa,
You could not regret more than I did that we did not meet during your recent visit to Boston. Aunt Sam assured me, positively, you were going on Saturday morning, or I should have made another attempt to find you.
I should have enjoyed very much a long chat with you, about yourself & your boys, & dear old Aunt Everett, to whose latter days you contributed so much comfort & happiness.
It is very consoling to us all [p. 2] to know that she was able to have some one near her so [crossed out: able] fitted to cheer & amuse her, & remove the lonely feeling such old age, without children, must usually suffer.
I have greatly regretted, since her death, as we are all apt to when too late, that I had not made an effort to get to New Ipswich since my marriage, but it seemed so difficult to carry children there, & I have never been willing to leave them.
I have, however, a very distinct and agreeable remembrance of her countenance, with its stately serenity and her quietly solemn manner, very impressive to me as a child, & I wish my children had the same remembrance. [p. 3] I was greatly interested in your account of her last hours, & much obliged to you for the paper containing her will, which is very characteristic & striking, but, I suppose, cannot easily be complied with, for a new & old school seem to separate nearly all sects, & it is natural & inevitable that they should do so.
Religious ideas have some growth & change as well as other things, &, tho’ the main truths remain the same, the theological scaffolding around them must be modified by different human minds.
I wrote Mary, at once, of her death, & in her last letter she refers to her with affection.
For my father, of course, such a loss is very sad, leaving him the last of such a large & long-lived family, & he must feel that his [p. 4] old home is really transferred to another world, but he has so much young blood about him that we trust his own life will be reinvigorated by it, & many pleasant years remain to him.
My boys are fast following yours, and I fear no longer consider me as young as I still feel. Charley is a very manly independant [sic] boy, & Erny of quieter, more artistic, tastes. Alice, who is now 8, is quite a companion, & a very intelligent, good little girl. The two younger are great pets & darlings – Edie, the blonde, most like her papa & Annie like me.
Mary is living in London, in her own house very pleasantly, & has her children with her whenever they have holidays. Ronny, who is now 18, has been attending lectures in Edinburgh this winter – Eva is 15 - & Angus 13.
Her health is as good as it has been, but not much better I fear.
[p. 1 cross] My husband begs to be most kindly remembered to you. Give my cordial greetings to your husband & your sons, & believe me
ever affly yrs
Fanny Longfellow.
I see Carry Blatchford every summer at Nahant, & we often talk over our old merry days.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; document; family life; death; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1859 (1011/002.001-029); (LONG-FileUnitName)