File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 7 December 1852 (ed9a43d3-bb90-4661-abee-aadbbcae797d).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#026

Cambridge Dec 7th 1852
Dear Tom,
Your full & pleasant letter was eagerly read, & we all rejoice you find London so agreeable & were tempted to stay over the grand pageant, which was not a thing to omit. The Illustrated News gives us the whole scene, & with a written description which quite makes one a spectator, but the feeling of the occasion is in the air, magnetically sympathetic from face to face, & cannot be reported. Tennyson's Ode we have only parts of, which mars it, but tho singularly modem & familiar for such things (shocking I suppose to the elders fond of statelier measures) it has a simple dignity of its own and gives the modem appreciation of duty over mere glory.
[p. 2] This afternoon we have a sad duty to perform – to attend Marianne Greene’s funeral. She went to her long-desired rest on Saturday morning just 3 days after her father & mother had parted with her, & were reaching Washington. A sad shock to them though so long expected. Uncle Wm & Charles will return this mn’g, but her poor mother not, which seems a hard necessity for her but the journey so rapidly resumed would be too fatiguing. There is little to regret in her departure, her sufferings have been so prolonged & so patiently borne. The service will be at Trinity Church.
Mary wrote you last week so that I have little new to say, - she & papa have sent 2 or 3 letters to Paris thinking you there.
Clough we see often & find very agreeable – by no means so painfully shy as I feared. He seems [p. 3] full of feeling, & good sense, & I hope will succeed here, & be able to bring over his English bride to something promising, but as yet it is uncertain. We shall soon have Thackeray, & I hope to enjoy his lectures greatly. The new Music Hall is a splendid affair & ample enough for the largest audience & perfectly comfortable in all its arrangements, with its 40 doors of entrance from the spacious corridors. The opening Festival was very fine, with Sontag shining in pink thro’ the gallery, vis à vis her rival as in the play of The Ambassadrice from her story. I forget if I told you the Benzons had her one evening at a select soiree musicale & that she graciously sang a charming song. I found her very easy & good natured in conversation, & looking [p. 4] a perfect German lady. Her voice, tho so skilfully [sic] managed, wants power beside the freshness & richness of Alboni's. She was very civil to the clergymen, & Dr Sharpe was deputed to thank her & present her a Bible!
We have had for a week Spring-like weather & it still hold on, a late Indian summer. Our Thanksgiving Turkey was duly eaten & the absent not forgotten. Hillard’s Eulogy on Webster was in good taste & seems to give general satisfaction.
Henry hopes you will meet Ampère in Paris. He also wishes you could get an edition of his poems which has the translation from Jasmin in it & send it to the barber poet as he has failed to do so as yet. Some of your literary friends there may tell you how it can be done.
Wishing you many happy days
ever yr loving
Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; social life; events; death; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1852 (1011/002.001-022); (LONG-FileUnitName)