Caleb Evans, Bristol, to Mary Steele, Broughton, [Tuesday] 8 April 1783.

Bris.l Apr.l 8. 1783

   How could you punish me so, to use a cover to me, & enclose not a word for me in it – Who wd think revenge could dwell in so soft a bosom as Sylvia’s? You see I am determ:d to begin with you, that you may not attack me.  But truly it seems a long time since I heard from you, & I suppose it is not a much shorter time since you heard from me. – but no epitaph, no nothing at all!  What are ye days of inspiration at an end? However my good frd at Abingd.n had produc’d a very good one, & upon recollec.n I almost think I’ve sent you a copy of it.  Howev.r here it is.

Fair was her form, more fair her gentle mind,

Where virtue, sense, and piety combin’d;

To wedded love gave friendship’s highest zest,

Endear’d the wife, & made the husb.d blest; –

Now widow’d grief erects this marble stone

To make his woes in solemn silence known.

Reader, if  thine the sympathetic tear,

O stay, and drop the tender tribute here!

Or instead of marble read sacred – and the next line thus.  “To make her virtues  & his sorrows known.”  W.t say you?  Let me have y.r & y.r hon.d father’s criticisms however.

  M.r Mullett is going to make a tour thro’ the American Continent with M.r Cruger, to settle a mercantile correspondence there, which will be trying to my Sis:r, but like a good wife she bows submiss:v to a kind & intelligent husband. – A tour like this will hardly suit our frdly circle at Broton, but we hope this reviving weather will tempt them to make some excursion, & we hope it will be here.  Our hills & vallies smile, & with the presence of such frds w.d shout for joy.

  My dau.r spent last week at Fishp.s, & is as lively as usual.  Her days of care & sorrow are yet too come.  Hughy has had no fit for more than a month, takes medic.s from M.r Cox, & we abnt hope may recover.  Joe goes on well in Lond.n, but will be a little derang’d by his Uncle’s going to America, & his Aunt’s resid:g here during that time, as he must seek ano.r family to board in tho’ he remains in the Compt.g house. I can’t help telling you my little affairs, bec.s I know y.r heart is apt to feel.  My dear wife has a bad cold, but has been upon ye whole better than could have been expec.d after the death of her hon.d Mother. How goes on my little book? Is it too gloomy? Let me know. Excuse this bagatelle, ’tis this or noth:g, for Leis.r is a commodity I kn.w but little of.  Our united sinc.r love to ye whole Corps.  I rem.n y.r affec.t frd & Serv.t

                                                         C Evans

Text: STE 5/16/iv, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.   Address: Miss Steele / Broughton / near / Stockbridge / Hants. Henry Cruger (1739-1827), a friend of Thomas Mullett, was originally from New York but emigrated to England prior to the American Revolution. He settled in Bristol, where he became a prosperous merchant. He was elected to the House of Commons for Bristol in 1774 and 1784, and was Mayor of Bristol in 1781. Joseph Mason Cox (1763-1818) practised medicine in the Fishponds and was a friend of Joseph Tomkins of Abingdon, future husband of Mary Steele’s half-sister. For more on Mullett and his time in Bristol, America, and London, see Timothy Whelan, “From Thomas Mullett to Charles Dickens, Jr.: Creating, Sustaining and Expanding a West Country-London Baptist Circle,” Baptist Quarterly 48.2 (2017), 78-100.