File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 15 December 1856 (82d7e5c2-02b6-4d79-9182-40fd91e1f676).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-026#017

Cambridge Dec 15th 1856.
Dear Tom,
So old Paris looks older like the rest of us & is no longer the siren she was to you. To Mrs Howland Shaw, I suppose she seems in her first bloom. But I am truly sorry, having gone so far to see her once more, you should miss any of her old familiar graces – or faces, and should commence your bachelor establishment with so sad a feeling. After you have found yourself settled, & dispensing hospitality I hope things will seem brighter, the giving pleasure cannot fail to give it you in return, but still I wonder you could resist the temp [p. 2] tation of going on to Italy with the Storys, the very sound of which, as Mrs Browning says, is like a far off tune. I am reading her new poem “Aurora Leigh” & think it magnificent – the finest web she has spun yet. Get it, if you have it not, & revel in her rich, fresh fancies, & wonderful word pictures. It must be an autobiography, and gives you her deepest feeling on books & art & Life, with touches of humor & sly sarcasm you would hardly expect from her. It is healthier than her former poems, the rose without a grub of her mature womanhood.
We have a new engagement which will astonish you – Louisa Bangs to – Henry’s old friend Rölker! It seems he has long been intimate with the family, & won the mamma’s good will by many delicate attentions, & pleased the young lady by [p. 3] his literary & artistic tastes, until she was fairly won, & is even reconciled to living with him in N. York whither he has gone to better his fortunes. She is a very superior girl, &, at first, I did not think him good enough for her, but he is of most reliable character, true as steel, & of most affectionate disposition, & I doubt not will make her an excellent husband. Aunt Sam likes it, all but the remove to N.Y. She felt much for her in Edward’s marriage, they were so sympathetic, & she is glad this comes just now. Mrs Edward looks finely, & seems quite content to be alone at Watertown while the girls are in town. Your James was here, the other day, enquiring about your return. He has been to Philadelphia & has not yet got a place here. The horses have cheap board in the country & we think are better there. This is not the time to sell them, & you could not [p. 4] easily find a better pair for the carriage – they are so light & fleet.
The Sumners have a gleam of hope. A boat of the Lymans has been found, by a vessel, fully stored with food &c and it is supposed to prove its human contents were picked up a few days out, to save their own lives being all they could attempt. We hope soon to hear of their arrival in some foreign port. Charles hopes to get to Washington with the new year. The boys have been enjoying skating immensely on Fresh Pond with hundreds of students & young ladies, who kept it up thro’ these wonderful moonlights. Girls & young ladies all learn to skate now, a very graceful, excellent exercise for them. Alice has a nice little French class which meets here twice a week I think of giving Hatty a twelfth-night party. Please get for me the Venus of Milo like Ned Austin’s of moderate size, a foot high, or more, if you think better. Not in bronze but in that stone-like substance. Remember me kindly to Mad. Mohl, whose Medusa locks I recall vividly. Can you find for Alice one of those dolls with wardrobe [p. 1 cross] complete in a box? Giroux used to have them. Mr Peabody’s death touches every body, & has opened many purse-strings for the widow. Already a large sum is raised for her support, & the two boys are cared for by two millionaires.
A merry Xmas to you, and a blithe New Year, and a cosy winter over your wood fire! Have you heard this wonderful new French drama by Mr Burhl or some such name? All send love to you. How sad was the death of your lovely [crossed out: Duchess] Contesse Fitz-James! Yrs affly
Fanny E.L.
[p. 2 cross] Mr Sparks has sent us an autograph letter of Col Trumbull who was [p. 3 cross] Washington’s aide while in this house, telling us that the study was the dining room then & the Library Washington’s own study.
But what is odd this letter is dated /43 & all the biographical notices say he died in /31! so I tell Mr Sparks it must be a spiritual document.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; social life; subject; family life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1856 (1011/002.001-026); (LONG-FileUnitName)