Richard Ryland, London, to Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, [Saturday], 21 March 1807.

Savage Gardens 21 March 1807

Dear Madam

   Our Travellers were highly favoured as to their Journey & got home safe though tired soon after 8 on Thursday – I feel myself much obliged by your & Mr Saffery’s truly kind attention to my Daughter in all Respects – I think her materially improved by her abode under your Care, and hope she may be a Comfort to us & to herself here – however I shall still wish to have Opportunity for her finding an Asylum with you again if any Circumstance shall make it desirable for her to leave home, trusting that she has not made you an unpleasant Inmate, but rather left our Interest with you as Friends at Salisbury.

   At any Rate I am clearly your Debtor for a Quarter in advance from this Time, and when you have convenient Leisure to make out an Account of what has accrued since your last, I shall be glad to receive it.

   I beg my best Respects to Mr Saffery, and am

                     Madam Your obliged Friend & Servt

                                             R Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 225 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, II.D.5.a.(7.), Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Address: Mrs Saffery | in the Close | Salisbury. Postmark: 23 March 1807.