File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Reverend Samuel Longfellow, 19 July 1852 (d4050e89-7f8c-4fd1-b138-2ea20a373ea0).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#019

Cliff House Newport
July 19th 1852.
Dear Sam,
I received a pleasant little note from you yesterday but not very satisfactory in regard to your European travels. I should be so sorry, in spite of the pleasure of having you with us again, to see you return without having enjoyed Switzerland & Italy – the poetry of Europe, after having had so much of its prose, that I trust before this you have been able to make some other arrangement which will detain you. Charley’s father seemed quite sure that he could find some acquaintance to return with & was very desirous his illness should not deprive you of any further pleasure. Your account of him is very encouraging, but I think he is wise to return as his parents have naturally so much anxiety from their many losses.
[p. 2] We have been on this goodly island a fortnight & are all gaining in its most excellent climate. We are delightfully situated on the Cliff with nothing but clover-scented grass between us & the sea & with a house full of most agreeable people. The house has been newly furnished so that our two drawing rooms are quite elegant & our bed-rooms spacious & clean, with beautiful views of this southern-looking sea so softly blue that it suggests all the poetry it has ever called forth, & in the golden glow of sunset seems worthy to wash Italian shores. It has very rarely the sharply defined horizon & steel blue of our harsher coast, & is often veiled in soft mists thro’ which it gleams with added beauty. We greatly enjoy its vicinity, & can walk for miles in sight of its foaming rocks, free from the dust which haunts the town, & is a great drawback to all out-door recreation there. Only two green fields separate us from the huge fantastic pile of the Ocean House, but we are as quiet as if on an island of our own, even the strains of the Germania band fail to reach us. We have many visitors [p. 3] however, & as they, thus far, have been chiefly old acquaintances we are glad to see them. Our household consists of Mrs Robert Sedgwick of New York, tho a native of Newport when Miss Ellery, & a woman of remarkable cultivation & agreeableness, of high-toned character & ardent sympathies – her daughter a clever, lively young lady – her son Ellery whom you may remember in College his wife (a Miss Brevoort) a very nice person with a famous baby – Mr & Mrs Benzon a pleasant little German couple, the lady singing skilfully [sic] delicious songs of Schubert, Mendellsohn [sic] &c. My brother is also with us – & the Howadji is daily expected. We have still two rooms not yet taken. Mrs Benzon has her sister with her who sings finely also, tho an American lady. We drive nearly every day & I have already made the pilgrimage with Henry to Bishop Berkley’s house & to Dr Channings. The latter Paradise of flowers & shrubbery & seclusion is so associated with him, as I remember his gentle figure welcoming us in the porch or pacing with us along the shady paths, that I really felt his loss afresh & was [p. 4] almost sorry I went there, especially when Miss Gibbs’ Episcopal chaplain appeared in his place & in the manner of the Rev Mr Oriel in Thackeray said in giving me some flowers “I am so sorry I cant find a passion-flower for you.” His very tasteful little church flourishes on one side of the house & Dr Channings modest one looks dumbly on from the other. I never shall forget the sermons of wise simplicity I heard in the latter to his unlettered audience – they will ever sanctify the spot. The picturesque Glen with its singing brook we have also seen, like a syren on the sea shore “to murmur one’s senses away,” & we go this afternoon to Bateman’s Point a fine drive Mr Brooks we have twice heard & like well. I see somebody is appointed clergyman at Fall River, the name I now forget, in your place I suppose. Will this disappoint you?
Henry was forced to return to Cambridge for Examination last week & found Mary ill with slow fever but she is better now. We had a glimpse of her for a few days before we came. The married Tiffany is here with a pretty wife. I believe I have not thanked you for your delightful letter about Scheffer I am glad you made his acquaintance & received so precious a pleasure as his pictures warm with life must have given you. My brother is happy to hear of his friends too. The Nor [p. 1 cross] tons seem very happy here. They are building on the harbour side & Mrs Cleveland at an extreme point seaward.
We can think of nothing for the box, tho’ the offer is tempting –
With all our loves
Yr affte
Fanny E.L.
You will be glad to hear of Sam Elios engagement to the charming Miss Emily Otis –
Miss Emerson is also fiancée of a John Lowell Aung Sally’s nephew

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