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Date: Feb. 21, 1884 Description: Josiah Pierce to Anne Longfellow Pierce

12 Beaufort Gardens. S.W. London. Feb. 21. 1844.

My dear little Aunt,

You gave me great pleasure byyour kind good letter of New Years Day ––the best of it being that you were sobright and well when you wrote it - andthe assurance that you did not forget me,as I do not forget you. I hope this may reach you in timeto add my assurances of affection andgood wishes to those you must havefrom all who know you, on your birthdaywhich I believe will be March 3d May

you have many more years of comfort andhappiness in your venerable old home;where certainly I hope to see you againas you so kindly wish – and to present toyou my wife and little daughter, to knowwhat the welcome is under that hospitableroof, such as that you have given m to myboy Joe lately – It was like praise fromSir Philip Sydney to have your approvalof him – and I am very glad if he can make himself acceptable to my relationsand friends at home, and that he wasso kindly received by your brother Alex.and his family, whom you know I alwaysesteemed, and beg to be remembered to –

Please give my best regards too, to your brother Saml and to Nan Sanborn, if theyare still with you = and pray offer togood Mrs. Gilman my sincere sympathyfor the great loss she has sustained – The kind and worthy gentleman, the faithfuland honorable friend and physician, mustbe missed greatly in Portland, and by allhis friends, and everybody, (even his horse,(if I may recall such a proof of his gentleness)was his friend); and the Dr. and Mrs. Gilmanwere always so courteous and kind to me,that I felt sincerely attached to them, andhave always cherished their feeling. I knowthis has been a sad grief to you, and

that you must have had the most tendersympathy with those who have been so nearand dear to you for so many years. I hopeMrs. Gilman will stay in Portland, andperhaps that her daughter may come to livethere – I am very sorry indeed that we havenot yet seen your nieces. They will haveon their own account, and their fathers,a healthy warm welcome from everybodyin England, and if they choose verydistinguished acquaintances: but whenwe return to London, about Easter, I dohope we may see them & be of some use to them

2.

Residing in the country, as we do formost of the year, prevents us, if nothingelse did, from taking part in thevery stirring life of London, and Ifear I am becoming too indifferentto the charms of society, and thatmy devoted wife accepts the situationand indulges me too willingly in myhabits of a book worm: but we tryto give some hospitality to the friendsfrom home who are so good as to cometo visit us, and nobody will be morewelcome than your two girls –

I am very sorry indeed to learnfrom a letter just received by my wifefrom Emily, that Lewis’s childrenhave been so ill, and glad that they are now better. In our pleasant home at TunbridgeWells, not now the gay watering-placedear to Ladies of Queen Annes reign,and to Dr. Johnson & Thackeray, buta very quiet out of the way, town, fullof Dissenters and the Salvation Army,we have been obliged, on account ofa prevalent scarlet fever, to keep away

this winter from concerts &c. onDorothys consideration - this youngLady is really worth taking care of –She is very clever and ingenious,a great coquette, and already, toofond of gentlemen – I think shewill be capable of taking good care of herself, and willing to help others –She is very strong, has very red cheeks,and decided will – but is really avery good little girl, though we do shenot whip her much, and ^ beginsto say her prayers –

Mr. Houghton ought to deliver the lettersregarding the Westminster Memorial ofyour brother Henry, to the Hist. Society;He obtained them, as a publisher,before the wishes of those most interestedin them were known, and it willbe wrong for him to dispose of themas he pleases – I am sorry mywell-meant services, and those ofMr. Lowell, were a little late, butthink the preferences of your brothersfamily, if strongly continued, willsecure the letters for our old Society

3.

Trying lately to employ some idletime in filling up a manuscript bookwith such notes as were in my handsof my family and their relatives,the memoranda which I collected about my Uncle George, where I had the happiness to be living inyour house, for Mr. N. Cleaveland’sHistory of Bowdoin College (whichare used partly in Prof. Packard’sHistory of the College) were dulyentered in my records – You willperhaps remember something about it –

These poor notes I did not liketo destroy – although they are not offarther use, may I send them to you,to look at – and then burn up, ifyou please – I hope they may bringback some pleasant memories - It is difficult for me to see thatit is nearly thirty years since I gatheredthese notes of such an active andambitious life then twenty years past,but they are still fresh to myself,of those bright young days of my

family and yourself, and of allI have heard of them – Perhaps you and I will not walkagain to Rocky Dundee as blithelyand easily as you have done ––I already feel old, and am lame,and use a stick for walking, beingnearly 57 years of age – but I cango over the grounds in memory –– I think my Uncle Georges descriptionof Fryeburgh, in these notes, is charming,and quite as good as anything fromWalter Scott.

It is not from want of affectionateremembrances of my friends at homethat I do not write more frequently.they often come to my thoughts, andcastles in the air of seeing them again,and being young once more at home. HarrietPlease give my love to my Aunt ^and to my cousin Hattie Bradley,and to Lewis and his family, andbelieve I shall turn up, as Dickenswould say, in an agreeable andsudden way, on you all, & believeme always, faithfully & affectionately, Yours, Josiah Pierce.