File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 18 July 1847 (5e417afd-4b03-4bb2-8888-a91ba20a0b6e).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#018

Oak Grove. July 18th 1847.
You must come, beloved, to this fascinating place without delay, & I am sure you will not repent the long journey. I am very impatient to get you here during this moon, & hope you are all now free to set forth & join us. From Boston you reach Portland in 5 hours per railroad ^ the upper route is best escaping the ferry^ ) leaving at 7 in the morning, as we did, or ½ past 2 pm if you prefer it, where you find an omnibus to bring you directly here, a distance of 2 miles only. The hotel was called the Verandah last year, & is so known generally, but I see by the towels they have rechristened it more fitly & romantically Oak Grove. It is of a comfortable size, large enough to be very well kept, with an excellent landlord [p. 2] & servants, & yet small enough to be quiet & extremely neat – There are no very permanent boarders, I believe, but ourselves, so that you could secure nice rooms easily – They vary in price from $17 per week for 2 persons (the highest price) to [crossed out: 4 & 5 [??]] 10 1/8 The best rooms are directly under ours on the 2nd floor (that is up one flight of stairs) & are nicely carpeted & curtained with new painted furniture much superior to any Nahant furnishing. We came up higher as we take four rooms, one on the eastern & southern corner for a parlor, commanding a beautiful view of the bay & its many islands & flocks of ships, adjoining this our bedroom & across the entry two for the children & nurses. We are quieter up here with babies, but as the rooms are lower I think you would prefer those under us [p. 3] which also communicate so that you can use one for a dressing room. There are four public parlors on the basement, where we [crossed out: shall] can receive any formal visitors if we choose, as they are never all occupied at once. But the charm of this place is the combination of country & sea. It is so rare on our coast to have soft lawns & woods fringing the salt ocean, & here there are endless, graceful promontories like the one we are on, crowned with groves & musical with birds. Within a stone’s throw of the house is the beautiful grove of oaks which gives its name to the place, where upon soft, mossy grass, under perpetual shade the children play all day long, while we sit about on the seats beneath the trees enjoying the delicious sea breeze which always sweeps [p. 4] over this height, with glimpses between the trunks of the sea on 3 sides as it runs far inland around us. There are many swings pendant from the boughs, & I the afternoon it is more or les resorted to by the town’s people & strangers, but in the morning is entirely secluded. The bathing arrangements are very convenient. Just below the garden is a large covered dressing room, below which the sea enters a space boarded below & at the sides, so that it is not close like a regular bath-house but is also better to the feet than stones & sand, for here there is no beach, its only want. For gentlemen, or ladies, there is a good billiard table & bowling alley much resorted to by some rather stylish looking but rather vulgarish talking damsels in flounces. We have made no acquaintance with any body in the house, preferring our snuggery up stairs, but Tom [p. 5] looks in occasionally below to see if there is any thing attractive, & amuses us with his reports. We took a delicious drive last night along the coast, the sea in sight for many miles, with islands & wooded headlands, making charming pictures.
If you can come, write me immediately what day you will be here, we can, meanwhile, secure the rooms you would like. The children have already gained in color, & I am hoping great things from the air & bathing for my little Erny who is very drooping with his teeth. Sissy, as she is called for lack of a name, laughs & grows fatter all day long, & continues to be the best of babies. I encountered Mrs Rich and Fay day before yesterday on the stairs, who had come over to see the place from Portland, where [p. 6] she is boarding while her husband massacres wood cock –
We are at the opposite horn of the bay from Cape Cottage, which lies en façe. The hotel was burned won there, or we might have selected that, but this, tho’ less rocky, has finer views, & is prettier in many respects.
I am delighted your spirits have revived, & think you have now passed the, to me, most unpleasant stage of your journey to “l’auguste mârtyre de la maternité” as George Sand called it before the days of ether. You must now be fully conscious of the reality of the fact, & will be no longer incredulous of the delicious happiness reserved for you, which can never be imagined until experienced, more than the joy of a new sense, tho’ I will not admit one fully feels this happiness until a [p. 7] child is fairly in the world & tolerably grown too, & then it grows with its growth.
You must miss your pleasant French guests, & I hope have had a nice visit from Mary Dwight, but I also hope she wont stay too long! for I hunger & thirst after thee, & a sea appetite exceeds all others -! I shall be charmed to great the fair & most loveable Elizabeth with you, & rich will be the hours of our vacation with such companionship; steeped in poetry & affection.
I fear I can quote you nothing from Evangeline having no proof-sheets by me, & Henry has a very poor memory for his own creations – but by the time you come it will be sent down to him.
I trust the little pet [p. 8] Nannie has fully recovered by this time, & gives her beautiful mamma no further anxiety beyond the secret one which is ever ready to become an active one.
Tom threatens soon to leave us, his restless spirit driving him about like a shuttle cock, but I hope we shall retain him a little longer, or entice him back again.
Good bye dearest –
Pray let us hear soon from thee – with love to Wm & Lizzy ever thy devoted
Fanny.

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