File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 14 July 1851 (8bdd91a0-ec0c-43a1-80e6-f76e2b9fcb1e).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#023

Nahant July 14th 1851
My dearest Emmeline
Since your departure many days here slipped by, only filled by me by with trifling necessities of daily life & I now send a renewed remembrance of my existence from the sea-shore. We came hither on Thursday last & are enjoying our small quarters & lazy life as well as last year. There is to me always a delicious sense of repose in leaving home, I can hardly explain, for I am not one of those terribly fussy housekeepers – but still the weight of a big house and of several servants is something so distasteful to my mind that I feel it – tho’ to you it would be “light as a dewdrop on a lion’s mane,” having a genius for such management. I can rarely sit down quietly without being haunted by [p. 2] the thought of something neglected or forgotten, for tho I arrange every thing as methodically as I can still my memory is treacherous & I dread its constant faithlessness. This occupation of the mind by petty causes, not dignified enough to elevate or interest it, is very tiresome when one longs for freedom for something better - & here I do enjoy my emancipation, & can read & think like a new creature.
Mary Parkman has been to see me, & with her a Mrs Hamilton, I believe, whose face is very familiar but where & how I have seen her I cannot so well remember. She spoke of the Wadsworths & I thought must know you, knowing Bowdoin so well, but she said she had always wished for that pleasure but had it not yet. Mary P. has a solitary life here – one I should not easily be resigned to. Her husband can come down but two nights in the week & leaves her like an [p. 3] Ariadne on her desolate rock the rest of the time. Luckily for her the Prescotts are so near but such an intermittent married life can hardly be called one.
Mr Prescott stopped to take a cup of tea with us a few nights since & was very agreeable as usual, lightly glancing from topic to topic as if his mind had whalebone springs, but I confess I like a little more earnestness of character as a fond for this elasticity on the surface, & never feel quite sure of that with him. He is a person I could never have a whole-hearted friendship with tho’ he is certainly a most delightful acquaintance. What a dirge this sea ever sounds over the departed – ever since last year – it mourns afresh – I see poor Mrs Chadwick sitting sadly on her piazza & think of pretty Mrs Brooks so joyous last summer & meet the Greenoughs on my walk in their recent mourning for Alfred. Charming Mrs Story is [p. 4] here & I hope much to enjoy her – she has a nice cottage too. Her husband went up on Saturday to see the Lowells off who have sailed away for Malta, on so smooth a sea & with such glorious moonlights to begin with that I really envy them. I do hope it will benefit her, for she is a very lovely creature, such a union as her’s [sic] and Lowells ought to be permanent – it will be – but one would like to have its mortal part not too soon sundered. Charles Norton came up to Henrys examination & passed a night with us & brought me a delightful book called “Companions of my solitude” by the author of Friend in Counsel” who writes with beautiful feeling & serenity of spirit. It has all the quiet, soothing atmosphere of a soft English day about it – of a thinker remote from active interest in life. My father has been at several grand entertainments in London & Jewett confesses we have not attained the highest possible civilization. He is struck with the great ease & cordiality of manner in these parties as compared with ours. The [p. 1 cross] had the honor of shaking hands with the Duke of Wellington & other notabilities. Harriot’s arrival I have only heard of. Mrs Sumner has carried off her letters to Pittsfield & I have seen none by the last steamer. Sumner was at Newport lately & says there is a French Count persuing [sic] Lilly Ritchie not much to her mother liking. He finds it so pleasant there we shall probably not see much of him. S- I mean. Mr Tudor is building here an [p. 2 cross] immense openwork brick wall & planting wheat! I like to see a man so [p. 3 cross] determined in overcoming difficulties. I hope you & yours are well & that [p. 4 cross] you will write when you are able. ever thine Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; family life; travel; social life; places; united states; ma; nahant; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1851 (1011/002.001-021); (LONG-FileUnitName)