Jane Attwater, Bodenham, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Tuesday] 11 October 1785.

My Beloved Friend

   Your affecte & Friendly letter I with pleasure recd it excited in my heart sincere Gratitude & I could scarce help expressing myself in ye words of my Good Friend Mr Philips “blessed be God for Friends & Friendship.” What were life without this sweetner of ye frequent bitter draughts we have to taste ’tis indeed ye Cordial drop Heaven in our Cup has sent.

   I rejoice to be assured of your welfare. I was fearful some of your much lov’d circle was ill because yt we did not see you at ye musical festival but was afterward inform’d of your welfare & I thank you my dear Friend in so kindly remembering both my dear Nephews. We have had 2 letters from John since he has been in Town. He is a boarder with Mr Gravely ye Gentn you was so kind as to recommend. Did I thank Miss Evans for writing &c about it? I am not certain wither I put my Intention into practice but I hope I was not so remiss as to omit it. If I did not beg you to apologize & do it now thus I often want a kind friend at hand to remind me of & make up for my deficiencies. My cousin seems much pleased with his situation as to his Lodgings says he met with an uncommon Friendly reception fm Mr & Mrs Smith & ye medical Gentn to whom Lord Radnor wrote takes much notice of him has taken him twice in his Chariot with him to ye Hospital & gives him very friendly advice concerning his future Conduct as a pupil in Surgery &c &c. The prospect opens fair may ye End be alike promising & pleasing may the Allmighty be his guardian & protector Shield him from every Surrounding Evil & guide him in the pleasing path of piety wisdom & virtue. He says nothing at all of London no more yn if he had been there many times before but business & things of Consequence seems to take up his attention.

   I have been thus particular as I think Mr Steele will also be pleased to hear of wt gives us all pleasure – thank you my dear kind friend for your caution I too have my objections about signing ye lease but my bror tells me he will Indemnify me from all risk or danger only as it was the Earls desire my name should be inserted in ye lease he thought no disadvantage could occur to me from it – but as I am to have no share in Business it wd not be right for me to be bro’t under any obligation of payment I have not yet seen it nor shall I chuse to sign it without a proper Security from future intanglements. Don’t you approve of my determination in this respect? I think it is but reasonable.

   I long to see you but alas know not when I shall have that real pleasure. Be assured my dear Friend it is a mortifying disappointment to me yt I cannot put my Intentions into practice of making one amongst your happy circle. Pleasing was ye scheme I had form’d of spending some weeks in now my best lov’d Asylum but I must deny myself yt pleasure for the present duty calls me a different way. My afflicted sisters at present in very pathetick language desires me to be with ym Sister Whitaker has been very ill confin’d to her room – She wrote me a kind letter some time since desiring me to come to her.  She seems still low but is much better yn she was – Sister Head has written a most affecting letter to Mr Philips wherein she discovers her distress to be much ye same as wn I was with her & renew’d by Mr Freemans death she desires they to intercede with me to be with my sisters this winter. Cousin Thomas return’d from Bratton last week & brings an account of Billys being better but he has still a bad troublesome Cough. We have settled to have a post chaise at Sarum to fetch him home as soon as he is able to come.  I am to accompany my sister Attwater & if so suppose I shall not return hither ’till next Spring. Thus does various Events tend to mar our promised pleasures. Hope my dear Friends will not think I do wrong or am ye less grateful for your kind Invitations no my heart feels it with much more thankfulness than my pen can Express – had it not been for this fresh Intelligence I should gladly have accepted your offer of accompanying your & my dear & Hond Friend to Broughton next Tuesday – but this forbids me & I must submit – we expect a letter tomorrow to inform us if ye doctr thinks it proper for William to take ye journey & wn, so that if the dear boy is able to undertake it we purpose going this week – if we do not I purpose writing to you next week if we do you may take my silence then as an Information of my being absent from Bodenham – I intend writing to my beloved Friend soon after I am at Bratton to inform you where to direct as I am not certain how long I shall stop there.

   Thus I travel thro’ life having no long continuing place amidst every Vicissitude may I dilligently seek one to come. Ah my dear with how much Indifference do I now view every abode to what I used to do. A painful vacancy is every where felt my loss is irreparable but let me think of that Infinite gain wch my dearest parent is now injoying & forbid the selfish tear – may I be permitted at last to be reunited with her in her happy home no more to be separated no more to mourn over my departed joys then a few more circling seasons at most will bring the wish’d for period.

   Thro’ divine goodness we are favor’d with health. I hope not to be long troubled with my last winters Companion.  I seem determind to follow my dear Friends prescription as I think yt ye best preservative of health together with going to bed & rising early I mean walking out. I am now become quite an advocate for it I assure you & promised myself much pleasure in rambling over your peaceful fields with my dear Silvia but since I cannot now I must content myself with ye thought that pleasure is still to come.

   If Mrs Steele have not got ye map & silks wd not have ym yet as I can do nothing to it without ye Instructions of my fair young teachers if they are bought wd beg Mrs Steele to keep ym in a dry place till I have ye pleasure of coming to Broughton – I have some hopes you will favor us with your company at Bradford before its long may I not indulge ye pleasing thought? I think you could do my sister Head more good by your tender sympathy yn any one else & if we are there together I think it will be an additional pleasure to both. What say you my dear Friend to this proposal?

   I din’d yesterday with Mr & Mrs Philips & Mrs Bearsly. Our good Friend seems quite recover’d of his late Indisposition. How is Miss Scott Miss Coltman & Miss Frowds? Now I thought to have enquired for you in person but must now ask by letter please to make my affecte commendations acceptable to ym all wn you write – accept & make acceptable to each of your surrounding Friends our united Compts & best rememberances. Has Mr J. T. been at Broughton lately Miss Anne?  I dreamt much of him one night but do not wish all to be realized.

   & how few are there of our wakeing dreams as well as sleeping ones on Retrospection do we view as producing perfect satisfaction. Adieu my Beloved Friend, may every blessing attend you & thro’ the Chequered path of Life may the Sunshine of peaceful prosperity shine with its pleasing Rays on my Silvia – adieu once more

                                 I am your truely

                                             Affecte Myrtilla

I am not certain wither we shall go to Bratton tomorrow or next day ye letter we expect it to day must determine

Bodenham  Octr 11:  1785

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, pp. 311-13 (annotated version); Attwater Papers, acc. 76, II.A.6.(iv.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No address page.

References above include the Salisbury Music Festival, held annually in early October, which Jane Attwater (even William Steele) often attended; Jane Attwater’s nephew, John Gay Attwater, who was studying medicine in London; Mary Drewitt Attwater and her sons, Thomas and William (Jane may have lived for a time with her brother’s family after her mother's death); the courtship of Anne Steele (she was 16 at the time of the above letter) and Joseph Tomkins (‘Mr. T.’) of Abingdon.

In late July 1785, Jane Attwater accompanied the Revd Joseph Horsey on his way from Salisbury to preach at Broughton. She stayed with the Steeles for about three weeks, remarking in her diary, ‘I have on this visit to my dear Broughton Friends enjoyed ye pleasure of as an agreeable society as I suppose the world can produce the pleasure of Friendship & ye still hearing ye word of God explain’d in an Experimental judicious manner. I mourn my own Unworthiness of these blessings ... & my Insufficiency to give that pleasure or profit I have recd from others...’

Jane Attwater maintained an interest in the affairs of Mary Scott and the Froude sisters, and was aware of Elizabeth Coltman by the date of the above letter. Elizabeth Coltman (1761-1838) of Leicester would become, after the mid-1780s, Mary Steele’s close friend and correspondent, with each paying the other visits and sharing numerous poems between themselves, much like Steele and Scott had done in the 1770s and ’80s prior to Scott’s marriage to John Taylor in 1788.