File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 30 January 1851 (28f44a3c-9177-4263-9e22-949d104a577d).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#003

Cambridge. Jan 30th 1851
Dearest Emmeline,
I have just received your note & hasten to tell you how I have waited for a line from you before I ventured to write. I did not know precisely how much anxiety you were feeling & dreaded adding to, or suggesting any, for I have had sadder heart-sinkings at times than I should be willing to describe to you, but you must now have gone through every possible evil the imagination will conjure up at such seasons of trial.
But it is comforting to find how hopeful the best informed are, & the many resources of the ship are well known to you. Capt Albert Sumner (Charles Sumner’s brother) was here yesterday & spoke in the greatest confidence of the ship, knowing the builders well, & the deficiency of coal in the other two seems to suggest most clearly the probable trouble. Let us hope for the best [p. 2] but whatever has occurred I trust in God’s mercy, we shall know & not be left in awful and prolonged suspense. I have the deepest commiseration for poor Mrs James in this dreadful anxiety, & if you think my sympathy would give her an instant’s satisfaction pray express it to her in the warmest manner. My heart aches for you all with this shadow upon your threshold after the sunshine so lately restored to it, & for poor Elisabeth, especially, when she hears of it – it would be forever such an association with her marriage, but the relief may follow hard upon the news. The steamer may have put back to Ireland & she be more troubled for you than you will have cause to be for her. God grant it may be so, & strengthen all your hearts with hope & power to bear up under the pressure.
I intended to have answered the query as to Miss Murray’s drawings [p. 3] in my last, & thought I had done so, but I write so hastily & often send off my notes in such a hurry that I forget many things. Henry was not a subscriber & therefore never received [crossed out: any] but one specimen drawing. He made several unsuccessful attempts to induce some friends to subscribe but does not know that any one in Boston did, nor the result. [crossed out: The drawing was left] He thinks they were possibly never continued.
Louisa Norton’s wedding seems to have gone off very quietly & happily; no one present but he family. I had a note from her the next morning written as neatly & serenely as usual, thanking me for the illustrated Evangeline, which was my gift, & Mr B., I heard, departed for town that day like a true man of business. She receives on Monday & sails on the 8th. All this excitement must be rather wearing to her mother, & I should think she would be very nervous about sending off two daughters to a wintry passage. [p. 4] Charley was to have come in the Atlantic but fortunately changed his mind He has the same gentle, refined air as ever, & appears to have looked at everything abroad with the mature wisdom of his father rather than with the enthusiasm of youth, but is a fine specimen of home education & a son to be truly proud of. He very kindly brought me a lace scarf embroidered with floss from India, which I shall find useful if I venture to the last Assembly. I have lost the two last having still too much cold, but am now better. My chicks continue pretty well thro’ these terrible changes, as yesterday from rain to the bitterest cold we have had, & yours I trust, my darling, add noting to your already too heavy anxieties. Mrs Lawrence must be in great concern about her young Abbot. Poor Mrs Cushing has lost her youngest boy & now I hope the plague is stayed in her household. Perhaps it will give you a momentary amusement to see some of the impudent nonsense of one of our penny papers about the last Assembly. Sumner sent it out to us. Henry [p. 1 cross] joins me in love & sympathy. Keep up a brave heart as long as possible but that I know you will do poor soldier of sorrow as you are, my darling. God bless you all!
ever & always yr true & loving friend Fanny.

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