This letter was shared by a friend, TomO, who explains:
"Attached is a transcription of a letter from the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, to his son Ernest. The letter is from Andrew Hilen’s 4 volume Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Houghton Mifflin 1968). The Fays and Lynnmere (Fay Estate/ Spring Pond area) are mentioned a number of times in Longfellow’s letters. The Fays and Longfellows families were neighbors in Cambridge and Willy Fay, R.S. Fay’s youngest child, was Charles Appleton Longfellow's, Henry W. Longfellow’s son, best friend. Willy Fay took Charles with him to visit his brother Captain Richard S. Fay Jr. at General Ben Butler’s Headquaters at Ship Island La. during the first year of the civil war. Capt Fay was Gen. Butlers military secretary. H.W. Longfellow had hoped that this trip would satisfy young Charles’ enthusiasm for the war. I wonder if Longfellow ever alluded to Spring Pond in his poems. Hope you find this interesting." - TomO
Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow*
To; Earnest Wadsworth Longfellow
Nahant Aug 1866
My Dear Erny,
I have just received your long and interesting letter from Interlachen, and
am truly sorry that our letters did not reach you more promptly and regularly.
You are slightly sarcastic on that topic. But I wrote you on the 27th of July, and Alice has written since. All your letters have been answered with speed.
I am afraid you are overdoing the mountain business with Crowninschield.
Why expose yourself to so many perils? You do not belong to the Alpine
Club; and if you go at this rate I shall only be to happy to have you out
of Switzerland, and out of harm’s way, as you probably will be when this
reaches you. Such over fatigue cannot be good for your head.
The Nahant home is quite alive and merry this week. Sumner, Rolke and
Greene have been here; and now Alice has four upper rooms full of
her friends. She has Katy Howe, and Arria Dixwell and Alice Jones and is
expecting Cora [Spellman] tomorrow. We also have Josie Ames and Henrietta
Dana; and if that is not a full house, I am mistaken. To-day
is windy and cold; and puts a damper on the hilarity: but no doubt it will
break forth tomorrow in grand style.
The “Alice” reached England in nineteen days. We had one Telegram
by Atlantic Cable and one letter from Charlie giving part of his Journal. He
is in high spirits. You will be seeing him so soon, that it is not worth the while to go
into details. I do not think he was in half so much danger as you have been
among the mountains.
Interlachen is charming; I hope you and Uncle Sam enjoyed it, and
had great weather. It seems to me the most delightful resting place in all
Switzerland.
It is bitter cold here at Nahant, more like Autumn than Summer. I
am quite ready to go back to Cambridge. I hope you are; and that you will feel inclined to celebrate your twenty first birth-day at home.
You will not see the famous Dresden Gallery, at least not in Dresden. The
papers say it has gone to England. What a pity, Uncle Sam will lament.
I am now going over to Lynnmere to read Charlie’s letter to Willie Fay
who has been laid up all summer with a lame knee. So farewell and take
better care of yourself in the future. We all send much love to you and U. S.
and if I do not write to him it is because I write to you, and have such a
multitude of letters to write.
Ever most affectionately
H.W.L.
* Hilen, Andrew, Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Vol IV Houghton Mifflin 1968 p173
To TomO,
ReplyDeleteGreat find!