File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 24 June 1841 (e49ec7b6-2465-4983-a1ec-7cb36c801868).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-011#013

Woolwich. June 24th 1841.
Dearest Tom-boy,
By way of contrast to your present locale in that ever-simmering, bubble-forming pot of Paris perhaps you would like to hear of our quiet doings in Nightingale Vale. Your notes only reached us yesterday, having as little reason ever to do so as the worthy Irish bishop & his wandering trunks to encounter each other – for your direction of “Nightingale Cottage” sent them migrating about these green lanes for two days there being no such bird-cage known in these parts. As we are upon the verge of the Vale I chose to date thence but truth compels me to confess that our cottage, with the two attached, have the cockney appellation of Prospect Place in [??] prettiest little lane imaginable but alas desecrated by the filthy title of “Ditchwater Lane” – What a shocking descent into the practical! We are about as snugly established as at Mrs Yales, & in spite of the expansive powers of cottages in general, I am obliged (now that Mac is here) to lodge elsewhere having a very good room next Miss Faners nest on the hill, where good Mrs Rich still remains much to my delight & where two pious intelligent Scotch people, Mr & Mrs Mc Canell, are for a time to enjoy Mr Scott’s preaching & this invigorating air. I breakfast with them & have had some nice phrenological talks for all these hearers of Mr S’s having the free mindedness to emerge from the Calvinism of their fathers are naturally open to conviction on every dawning truth & have embraced homeopathy, phrenology &c in unison. I then descend to the lane for the day & do not find this divided arrangement uncomfortable thus far, tho’ it might be in bad weather. I think Mary is already looking better being able to dawdle about here so quietly & freely & taking frequent lolls on the Common where it is amusing to see the machine-like manouvres of the troops on parade, hear the band & see occasionally elegant mustached officers strut by. Ronald has developed some very rural sounds in imitation, I fancy, of the poultry upon [p. 2] which his cockney eyes have opened for the first time, but has not quite got over his alarm at the motion of green leaves. He flirts with the Scott baby & probably initiates her into city ways. Robert came down on Tuesday ev’g with Frederick & the phaeton, two very welcome additions to our rusticity. for He felt it a pity to throw poor Oliver adrift in such a hurry & he is too convenient a pocket-compass to spare. In the latter we have explored some beautiful bye wads, seen noble views from the Park of an old Elizabethan mansion a few milles [sic] hence & traversed the renowned Black heath, now civilized out of all banditti-terrors, being flanked by rows of pretentious houses on either side & looking as amiable as Beacon St. But I must tell you how much you lost in not seeing the launch for which a ticket awaited you & a little damsel, who was ordered to watch [crossed out: for] an hour for a tallish gentleman looking somewhat puzzled & when any such was discernable to drop a modest courtesy & ask if his name were Appleton! I feared the summons would come too late, but it was a pity for you could not but have enjoyed such a striking scene which was one of the prettiest spectacles I ever saw off the grand Opera. The swarm of vessells [sic] & boats crammed with gayly [sic] dressed people & decorated with innumerable flags & streamers ploughing up old Father Thames, both whose shores were oppressed with spectators, had quite a Venetian gala effect, as seen in old pictures, & when a very black thunder cloud arose & relieved the whole it was still more picturesque & impressive. We did not get a glimpse of the Queen after all, our steamer being stationed just behind hers, which had a triumphal arch of flags from stern to stern & had every yard manned with sailors entirely in white & so motionless that they seemed, at that height, made of sugar candy ornamenting a confectioner’s conceit. The awning & backs of her attendants veiled her from our eyes but it was a pretty thing to know her assisting upon such an occasion & recalled some of the antique pageants. Punctually to the moment, the huge sleeping crocadile [sic] of a ship slid majestically out of its box looming so high above every thing that I thought it would swamp us all. The Queen had previously broken [p. 3] a bottle, by way of christening-water, upon its deck bestowing another upon the veterans of the battle who were peeping from all its port-holes as we neared it, afterward, with laurel round their hats. If you had come you would have shared in the charge of half a dozen womenkind all of whom Capt Fade had under his care, & one, a very pretty, elegant woman, a Miss Gates something like Elizabeth Oelricks, would not probably have regretted another & younger cavalier. The Captain is a hearty English sailor, was a hero at the first siege of Acre & has a midshipman son who has begun his career at this last. It is odd to see in this peaceable rurality the constant gleaming of red-coats & epaulettes thro’ the trees. Tonight we drink tea at a Col Nichol’s friend of the Scotts who has a fine house with a fine view – a bright, intelligent wife & two nice daughters talking wise as Miss Shaw. Mrs Rich & I strolled yesterday mn’g over fields & stiles & to escape a shower bestowed ourselves upon them for an hour. They lent me a book called ‘physical theory of another Life’ by Taylor which promises an ingenious ‘fond’ for metaphysical speculation tho’ I hardly expect to fathom it in the lazy mood of mind country air creates. I shall be sorry to quit this (which we sha’nt do till next week) for Mr Scott’s preaching is no slight satisfa[c]tion to me & all his clique are such kind, intelligent people with whom a short acquaintance advances you far. Mrs Rich, too, I love dearly & enjoy more & more the outpouring of her mind & memory. On our star-lit walk bed-ward last night she gave me such an interesting account of her Bagdad life – her sleeping upon the house-top with no curtain but the sky above her - & listening to the strange hum of the whole town, alike prostrate in the open air, sometimes a voice rising above the universal snore singing & then the sudden shriek from mourners at a death-bed. She has a very large organ of Wonder & much faith in Prenology [sic] & wants to take me to De Lisles (if that is the name of the famous London man) who astounded her with his insight thro’ her brain of some traits of character all her friends denied to exist on it. By the way, she would like to have you purchase for her in Paris a new book, entitled “La mort avant l’homme” – a very strange, mystical title. If any thing very pretty & not very expensive in the fancy line has come out you had better find a corner for it in your trunk & if it would not bore you to have such a lady-like comiss [p. 4 bottom] ion I should be glad to have you get Mrs Welles’ to buy for me a collar of Brussells lace called appliquée not to exceed 10 in price. You can easily slip it between the folds of a shirt or bring it in yr pocket & as they are ungettable with us I do not wish to lose the opportunity. You may think yourself lucky to get off so well in that feminine town par excellence but the hopelessness of your smuggling female gear into England bars further demands. Gloves, surtout, which I chiefly covet.
A French ship, it seems, brings further reports of the President having seen in April a large steamer enclosed in ice. Col Nichols tells me, (his son in-law being one of the persons concerned, agent or what not) that her strength equalled that of the Trafalgar, that she was admirably built on the best model, that she could overflow herself with water to resist fire & must have perished by ice alone. So Doctors disagree. He lost an eye fighting against us at Mobile & is an immense abolitionist – [p. 4 top] with such plump, Irish pretty daughters when you would like I am sure but it will seem superfluous to wish you here - & the Tuileries’ fair daughters swimming around you. How does Mr Gray pedometize in such a comparatively narrow limits as the Boulevard enclose Write us all you see & do & when you intend to recross the Channell [sic]. We shall forewarn you of our movements & hope that entre met of French dinners & ways wont take the relish off the monthly we hope to make you enjoy here. Remember me to Mrs Welles, the Casses, Ledyards, Walshes &c & with the best love of our diminutive household & their best wishes that you may keep well & merry I must say good bye Yr most aff Fan.
ADDRESSED: T. G. APPLETON ESQ - / CARE OF MESSRS WELLES & CO. / PARIS. FRANCE.
ENDORSED: HOTEL CANTORBURY N. DULA PARIS
SEVERAL POSTMARKS

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