Jane Attwater, [Bodenham], to Mary Steele, Broughton, 20 June 1774 [incomplete].

… our comprehension vainly does [illegible] try to scan Infinity  Therefore be our Language Submission and adoration.

   My Mama in particular has been extremely anxious for Mrs Steele ever since Maria was at Broughton dreading ye consequences of ye account we then had   She is now much easier. May our valued Friend be soon restored to her usual health & Long O Long may her life be spared to each of her Affecte Relatives & real Friends. I rejoice to hear you are so well. Be careful my dear to preserve ye Excellent blessing of health.  Florio told me you looked charming well. He said he was quite delighted to see you so.

   What shall I have to tell you in return for all your jaunt. Did I tell you of our riding to Fordingbridge some time agone?  Thirsis Florio & I had a very wild but pleasant & Romantic ride through the wood. Some very beautiful prospects presented ymselves to our view – one particularly claimd my attention. A large Wood at the side of a hill with a gravel winding walk at ye brow of it – at ye foot of it a serpentine River flowing in beautiful meanders through ye vale & a range of spangled meadows cover’d ye valley, distant woods & elegant vistas termanated the view, the straggling Hamlets & the wild Inhabitants of the Clay-built Cotts made ye scenes truly Romantic – How did I wish for my Silvia to injoy ye beauties of ye Lovely Spring!  had I her pen I would discribe ym but tho’ I have not a pen to paint, I have a heart to feel.

   Your congratulations on ye returning Health of our amiable Fidelia we gratefully acknowledge. ’Tis my dear an unmerited mercy Long O Long may each of our dear Friends be spar’d I am astonish’d at myself for being so little affected with a grateful Sense of ye Mercies I enjoy both personally & relatively may divine grace make me more humble more Thankful & more Solicitous to do the Will of him Who is ye alone giver of every good I enjoy – does it not shew ye greatest ingratitude to act contrary to the mind & command of those Friends wch has bestowed any favour on us how … [part of letter has been cut off] ... 

   Our united compts await all our dear Friends.  I have not heard from Maria nor Dorinda since they left us ye former I beg’d a Letter fm in particular as I told her I should be very anxious to know how they got home – May my dear sister be preserved thro every danger.  I talk of going soon to Bradford.  Mr Head desires me to be there in July. I am not positively determind as yet.  I have now abundance of things to say to you but have not room nor time now.  I have not began to write in yr book yet its 12 or one oclock and I expect company this afternoon.  I forgot to mention about ye book, I wrote ye note Tuesday morn but Rachel carried it to ye Lion Thurs.  adieu my beloved Friend forgive this Long Scrible fm your ever

                                 Affecte Myrtilla

Let no one see this hasty scrawl  my love to Lucinda &c  Clarissa & ye little prattlers

We could not prevail on Fidelia to write notwithstanding Mr Drewett perswaded her you have her Friendship & affection ye same as if she professed it in ever so strong terms.  Therefore hope you will excuse it – you would have smiled to have seen how our Friend at Sarum seem’d taken up about it yesterday – I had much ado to prevail upon Florio to insert his & when he had he would have fain took it out again.  All my Friends diffidence about their superior performances makes me more out of conceit with my scrall I wrote it but can you read it once more adieu my dearest Silvia.

   Mr Dear from Bratton a young Student is just arriv’d – we all unite in ye tenderest commendations of friendship

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 244-45 (annotated version); Attwater Papers, acc. 76, II.B.2.(d.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.  No postmark. Address: June 20th / 1774 / Miss Steele / Broughton / Hants.  Attwater ("Myrtilla") spent some four weeks in March and April 1774 visiting Mary Steele ("Sylvia") at Broughton.

References above include Jane Attwater's sister, Marianna Attwater Head, and their brother, Gay Thomas Attwater ("Florio"); his wife, Mary Drewitt Attwater ("Fidelia"), and possibly her father; and possibly Joseph Dear, who would later become a schoolmaster and correspondent of Maria Grace Saffery. The ‘book’ mentioned several times in the letter and to which Jane, her brother, and several others made contributions, is Mary Steele’s Friendship Book. Mary Scott also contributed a poem to the book (‘Written in Mary Steele’s Friendship Book 1773’) that was transcribed by Marjorie Reeves and placed in STE 5/14, implying that she (Reeves) saw the Friendship Book. However, the book is no longer in the collection at the Angus Library and its whereabouts are unknown.