File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Nathan Appleton, 5 July 1855 (4858e0cc-7f2e-43a1-8c92-e95879c3de37).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-025#010

Perry house Perry St.
Newport – July 5th 1855.
Dear papa,
Tom received your note today, & as he is lazy I answer it for him.
We arrived here safely Tuesday evening, greatly relieved to find, just before leaving home, that the day before the arrangement had been made by which we should have no delay in Providence as we feared, so after dinner & a dusty, disagreeable railroading of [p. 2] two hours we were refreshed by getting into the little steamer Perry & sailing down the pretty river, where from every ship boys & men were plunging into the water like water-rats.
Mrs Eliot & her daughter were looked after by Tom, & sat with us, & Charley Norton met us at the wharf with carriages. Our landlady welcomed us very blandly, & we find the house beautifully neat & comfortable, with a good table, & the freshest, finest-flavored strawberries from the garden I have tasted this summer.
Yesterday was supernaturally quiet for the 4th, [p. 3] & seemed to me more like Sunday. Charley was up at 4. & had exhausted the town by noon, & both boys & nurses have, as yet, no great opinion of Newport after Nahant, especially as the dust was ankle-deep, but today a fine rain has allayed it. The air is so soft & vital after the terrible heat we had before leaving home, & which, with packing, took away all my strength! We had a charming drive in Tom’s vehicle yesterday afternoon upon the beaches, meeting quite a number of private equipages for so early in the season – the Bancrofts among [p. 4] them. We had a bow & smile from Laura Winthrop, who has therefore arrived.
The Hotels look pretty quiet.
The two gentlemen dine with Albert Sumner today, who told us a good joke about Fanny Bowen’s marriage – that despite being supported by two Bishops it was not legal, the State not allowing alien clergymen to do such things, so that at Pine Bank, Hillard, as Justice of the Peace, was obliged to marry them again! Tom’s coachman having lost his wife has his boy with him, a nice page & messenger for us.
We had a few private fireworks last night which consoled the boys a little for losing the Boston ones. This is the house where Mr Charles Codman stayed the summer we were [p. 1 cross] at Beach Lawrences. The Daily has come. Tom is invited to a dinner party at Harry Sargent’s for the 2d of September! That shows a pretty good trust in Providence.
With love to H. & the chicks
Yr affte
Fanny
No one else in the house yet but ourselves.
ENDORSED: FANNY. JULY 5 . 55

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