File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Nathan Appleton, 4 August 1847 (c081fcd2-a052-4e36-ae0b-9507bf17488d).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#021

Oak Grove. August 4th
Dearest papa,
Many thanks for your note & the kind proposition therein contained. We shall take it into sober consideration. It would be a great pleasure to us to be so near your but our absence from Cambridge is so limited in time that it is not yet quite clear to our minds whether it would be worth while to set up two houses. Still it is very tempting, & if the grove at Stockbridge could be transported so near you would be quite irresistible.
I am hoping a letter from Mary is coming to me via Pittsfield, but I suppose it is doubtful. Tom has been utterly sil [p. 2] ent since he left us, so I know not where he can be, but fancy him laughing at men & manners at Newport.
We continue to enjoy our position exceedingly, & regret that the days will run away so fast. Annie Pierce & cousin Ann Sophia have been passing some days with us, very agreeable sharers of our baths & walks, & readings & loungings. We have just attacked Prescott, after skirmishing thro’ Omoo, which is very inferior to Typee, being written not so much for its own sake as to make another book. apparently. I understand the author is engaged to a daughter of Judge Shaw. After his flirtations with South Sea beauties it is a peculiar choice (in her).
Our house remains full but is quiet & family-like. A nice looking Eng [p. 3] lish couple & son arrived yesterday from Canada & have taken the best rooms. The children enjoy greatly the society of 10 others as playmates, & the grove & the sea lose no charm. Last week who should be seated next us at table but Bryant the poet, &his wife & daughter. They were on their way to the White Mts & merely looked in on us for a day. He looks very grey & thin, but she fairer & plumper than I remember her. He charmed the children by planting sticks as trees for them, & other little attentions, & seemed more the poet than when seen in the turmoil of N. York. I wish Harriot could have seen Mrs M’Clellan sink into her pocket-handkerchief one day as Mr Furbish, more than half seas over, shouted, twirling his hat, “I wish to die – for I know that I shall live again” &c We see Portland people of afternoons, but can [p. 4] keep clear of them if we choose, as it is very easy to lose oneself. I have not felt a day too warm for me, there is always so much air, & the briny odor constantly filling it with refreshment. Last week was like best October weather, fine for bowling or exercise in the open air. Mr & Mrs Welles & their pretty daughter have been to see us. I have only been once to Portland except Sundays to hear Dr Nichols. Our omnibus Mazeppa (the slowest of vehicles!) & its lone driver Peter, in perpetual fear of losing a fare, deserve the pen of Sir Francis Head, or Dickens. We have been feasting on raspberries & blueberry pies as have you I suppose. I must end this hurried note, with love to Harriot & kisses to the chicks Their school must be a most comfortable arrangement. Charley practises engineering with bowling balls for cars. I know not what to think of the Jewish Rabbi who has deafened Aunt Mat [p. 1 cross] tie with his bells of long prayers & Christian love-making. Tell her a Jew is worse than a Jesuit Seriously, I hope she may live to be Mrs Benjamin if she desires it –
Love to Uncle & Aunt Gold
ever yr aff
Fanny.

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