File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 31 January 1847 (a3e01352-ba2d-4008-b59e-df6652680b98).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-017#004

Craigie House. Jan 31st 1847.
We grieved to hear, dear Tom, that you had fallen again into the doctor’s hands, but hope, by this time, you are in a merrier vein & free from all “hitches” whatsoever. I had something similar last winter and cured it by homoepathy [sic], but the French are great lovers of surgery I believe. I am glad your hands were so well employed while your feet were idle, I shall be delighted to see the fruits of your retirement. Pray write me all you know of Schaffer & his works, &, if you can, bring some of the latter home in some shape. I have a peculiar admiration for his genre of sentiment, & long to see more of his creations.
We are enjoying our vacation very quietly at home. Henry feels all the relief of throwing off the burden of responsibility & care for a while & letting [p. 2] his Pegasus soar away unshackled by the heavy harness which usually oppresses him, &, for many months, keeps him almost imprisoned in his stall. He has not published any thing since you left, I believe, but the poem to the Estray. But we have been deluged with poetry of late – Story & Read & Channing & Colman singing away in their small way; & Emerson besides, in some very fresh, lark-like strains, though more irregularly poured fourth among the clouds than near the common atmosphere of earth. But I consider these very remarkable poems-, more purely American than any ever written, that is freer & fresher from all established phraseology & old-world trains of thought, & full of a peculiar republican audacity, so to speak, as from an independant [sic] thinker & observer in a great free forest, which indeed he is in the Concord woods. The one on his child has a welcome touch of human feeling in it, which he too often keeps out of sight, for I am sure he is not deficient in it. But I believe I have written you [p. 3] of all this before.
The children are very well & merry, & are now great playmates. Little Erny runs about as well as his short legs will let him, & is already ambitious to be master of a wheelbarrow. Charley is quieter & more affectionate than he was, & drinking in new ideas faster than he can hold them. The town-children were quite tickled with your sketch of them, & have their portraits by heart. We took Willie & Hatty yesterday to see the Viennoise children, they exhibiting Saturday afternoons for juvenile audiences, It was a charming sight, - by bright gaslight in this very pretty theatre, - the children in the boxes so flushed & eager, & the swarm of little butterflies on the stage, with their most finished & swift evolutions. The last dance, with the whole 48 in it, was very lovely, half being dressed as little black slaves, & forming morning-glories with red & white scarfs in every stage of bloom. Many of the philanthropic here are quite troubled about the future of these girls – as their heads will be probably turned by such an education, but they are from [p. 4] the lowest poor, & have now a gay happy life enough; perhaps they are not in more danger of ending badly than if starving in the streets or toiling in factories.
My letters from Emmeline continue to be most cheering & delightful. Wm has been constantly gaining since they left N. York, & is now, she says, really perfectly well body & mind. Happiness seems sure of rewarding, at last, her loving, long-tried nature. You will be surprised at a new engagement. Elisabeth Welles to Stephen Perkins widower! He is rather deaf, to be sure, & has several children but otherwise is no bad match for her. Papa Ben is highly pleased to be connected with the P- family. We had a very pleasant dinner the other day at Bennett Forbes’ for the Feltons. The Motleys, Stackpoles, Howes, Miss Cary Sumner & ourselves made up the guests – The dinner was almost wholly game, 3 pairs of ducks appearing successively! but was very handsomely served, with choicest china, & massive dragon-embossed silver to make a Parisienne die of envy. We dine with Papa, next week, to meet the Swiss geologist Agassiz, who has finished his lectures here, but remains to dissect Father Neptune’s subjects, of whom he has a fearful amount of knowledge. Tadpoles & eels are his bosom friends, & a mere glance at [p. 1 cross] their brains tells him their whole history. Sumner has been arguing off minors from serving in Mexico. The suppression of the war is more loudly demanded every day, & I trust ere long will be accomplished. Dickens’ “Battle of Life” shows he is waking up, with the rest of the world, to a knowledge of the truly honorable victories, - & can distinguish between a hero & a butcher. I go to no balls at present, so I can not tell you of the triumphs of the season. I hear Cheney has taken a lovely portrait of Cora, but she does not gain, I think, any new laurels from last years. Other rivals divide them. Old Judge Davis, of her church, is dead. I believe there is no other news. With Henry’s love, & my kind regards to Mr. Austin & your other friends,
ever affly thine
Fanny L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; social life; health and illness; subject; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1847 (1011/002.001-017); (LONG-FileUnitName)