File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Nathan Appleton, 18 July 1841 (ce31f5d3-d9d1-4704-9386-3549fdacbd71).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-011#016

Woolwich. July 18th 1841.
Dearest Papa,
Your letters are doubly acceptable of late for they are sure to bring us at least a day of warm weather, (twice certainly they have done this & I am much inclined to such a pleasant superstition) a blessing that has been rarely vouchsafed us during this month of rain & uncertainty. The Spring was so glorious here, however, that we resign ourselves to await August for summer & I am happy to tell you that in spite of such sorry weather we are all visibly gaining flesh & colour. Mary got on slowly & became so nervous about herself that she at last resolved to consult a physician & it was a wise step for he has relieved all our minds (being the best surgeon in London) by assuring her that quiet & some simple strengthening processes would soon reestablish her & restore her spine to its natural condition in having been, ever since her confinement, a poor support. This is the long & the short of her troubles & now she understands them I can see feels easier & better. He is to see her again on Wednesday after which we shall decide where next to go hoping to have Tom with us again by that time. Give Harriot my thanks for her very agreeable letter about yr Berkshire wanderings. It must have pleased Grandmother to see you there & Willie about whose looks they were so curious. I hope the Ox-bow seduced you under its yoke & looked too tempting to be neglected much longer. Robert went lately to Winchester for a day & en route stumbled upon a Stockbridge; vastly different from ours, a fat old landlady enacting Galpins role & quantities of race horses sent to pace upon its turf instead of romantic young ladies. This steamer will probably bring you serious, if not the final, account of Mr Sam Welles. I went to London the other day with old Mrs Wiggins, by appointment to accomplish some of Aunt Sam’s orders with her, but found her in great distress having just received letters from Mrs W. announcing her husband’s alarming condition from what [p. 2] they conjectured to be a cancer in the stomach. She insisted upon my lunching with her altho’ she was unable herself to touch a morsel & was evidently much frightened, and finally decided to set off the next night to her sister’s aid. Tom has written that he was there considered in a very alarming state & his recovery doubtful. The death of such a financial potentate is as much a public matter to us as that of the United States Bank, tho’, if it is to happen, a successor will doubtless be rather more easily appointed. I am sorry to confess that I have not yet read yr pamphlet thinking it would be but a poor compliment to do so for the word’s sake, the matter being Hebrew to my feeble “causality.” We intended to send you by the last steamer the thanks of the Athenaeum therefor but overlooked it when our letters were sealed. Mrs Warren’s death was a great shock to me, she had always seemed such a strong, hearty woman, [???] so brimming over with life & activity that I cannot yet realize her pulse is forever still. I feel much sympathy for the girls for I can never forget how much she had for us when left desolate, nor how much she loved her from whom she learned the lesson then so new to some of us that “we are to become perfect through suffering.” This lovely country unfolds new attraction from acquaintanceship like every-thing that is lovely or loveable & I am surprised Shooter’s hill & its vicinity have not been as renowned as Richmond which it ^that is the view there^ excels, I think, in variety & equals nearly in richness. We continue to walk & drive about here constantly, sup nightly with the Scotts & pity the poor people choked up in London, which blackens our horizon with its dusky breath tho’ the chief coal consumers must have escaped thence. We had a famous temperance man, a Mr Dunlop a Scotchman, here lately who gave me some rather discouraging facts about his Augean labours. One, which may strike you as curious to exist now a days viz that no less than £500,000 are expended in London alone upon compulsory drinking – that is, the apprentice perquisites in allowances which must be spent on liquor. They all listen with wonder to my accounts of our happier successes in [crossed out: this] removing this drag upon humanity & I wish I knew more about [p. 3] our system of education & how it is supported among the lowest classes for they are wholly ignorant of any effective one here & as Mr Scott is much interested, & the man to do something, therein a few hints from America would be very valuable. It must be a harder task here from the brutalizing processes so long at work having dulled the Norman shrewdness which with us flames up more readily. During the Election here a poor wretch was heard muttering; “I have lost 2 days work in this electioneering business – but hurrah for so & so (his candidate) he’ll never see me starve” – a simple, dog-like faith worthy of a feudal serf. We are just diving into Miss Sedgwick’s book & reading it here I almost regret she should have written it for while we are in such close neighbourhood with London society her personal remarks sound as oddly as did the “Scenes at the Fair.” She has too kindly a nature to say any-thing very severe or to handle at all private individuals but there are many little things which must annoy those who were very kind to her, so it is a pity she was tempted, against her better judgement, to write such an inevitably backward thread-bare story as all travellers’ but Baron Munchausen’s must be. Yesterday, I was taken by a Miss Maclean, a very gentle pleasing person (daughter of a Lady Maclean who lives here) with her cousin & a red-haired Officer to see the Repository a huge tent once belonging to Tippoo Saib & under which the allied Sovreigns dined & which now stands upon Woolwich Common filled with curious models & armor & trophies of all sorts. They pretend to show the veritable Iron Mask, in which a little window of the eye is sole aperture, the rest solid steel. Nap’s funeral car is here likewise, & looks like an iron beadstead. Our Officer said he had the pleasure of pointing it out to Jerome Buoneparte who thereupon started back & folded his arms solemnly looking just like his brother. All the Officers we saw playing cricket in sailor-like costume & sending forth very boyish shouts at any victory. Ronald is daily more amusing having developed lately great self-will beside his unceasing physical activity When held up he dances the sailor’s horn pipe to perfection with his stumpy little legs. In physiognomy resembles a tiger not so much in a ferocious state as when quiet or dozing! His hair still very like a cocoon. I have just been dining with 2 Jews (Miss Farrer’s protegés) [p. 4 bottom] whom she brings here every Sunday to hear Mr Scott, - her benevolence chiefly exercising itself upon this race. When in town I was coolly asked to Sir Robert Inglis’ but preferred a famous treat at the Opera of Rachel, Taglioni &c. Mrs Rich met the Bishop Doane & his tail who had been passing some days with Sir R. at his country seat, mutually pleased one with the other. He is even more of a Puseite than his host – who however is too fond of Bishops to overlook an American one. Is a man of unbounded hospitality, truly kind-hearted & easily pleased so the Yankees were fortunate in falling into his hands. Mary is getting connected with great folks – Robert’s Uncle Baugh Allen, a man of 60, has just married a Miss Bailly niece of Lady Jersey’s whose daughter mar- [p. 4 top] ries an Esterhazy & son a daughter of Sir Robert Peel, the great conqueror of the newly victorious party. What changes! How will the world get on without O’Connell’s big voice? The poor little Queen too detests Sir Robert for his bearish manners & is no doubt pouting greatly just now. Tell Harriet I have purchased her broach & will send it by a good chance (if such an one turns up) in company with Cary’s bracelet. Your brobdignag [sic] Notion & the paper with Webster’s letters have vexatiously vanished before I read them or showed them, as I wished, to our friends here. Thank Aunt Sam with my love for her prompt & kind answer to my letter. Warmest remembrances from us all. God preserve you! ever yr true Fan.
ADDRESSED: STEAMER “ACADIA” / HON. NATHAN APPLETON. / BOSTON. MASS. / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
POSTMARK: PAID / 19 JY 19 / 1841
ENDORSED: FANNY A. / JULY 18. 41.

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