1.     Richard Ryland, London, to MGS, Salisbury, [Thursday], 31 August 1809.[1]

Sav. Gard:  31 Aug 1809

Madam       

   I now enclose you B P Bills for the Amount mentioned in your’s by today’s Post. The Expence & Sufferance of Harriet’s continued Indisposition is to be lamented all Respects – if her Journey to Cheltenham is of Service, especially, that is well – but I had rather it had not been undertaken without my previous Concurrence & am sorry to say that my Experience of their Discretion, both or either, hitherto is not such as makes me at all easy that they should be on their own hands or under their own Guidance, any where – much less at what can be called a public Place – with the person you describe as a Servant & under the Inspection of the Wife of the Dissenting Minister, it is to be hoped nothing censurable will take place, but I had much rather they had gone into the family of the servant or some other family where their Conduct had been under Control & the Expence ascertained & limited – I shall certainly dread that I may hear of them at some awkward moment & in some unpleasant Way, from some or other of the Idlers & Gossips that frequent the Place & also will be sure to find me out here, the more for having anything to communicate, derogatory & displeasing – you have a fuller Confidence in the Existence of real Religion in their hearts respectively & of its Effect upon their Conduct, than I have been able to indulge hitherto, however I might wish it – & you have certainly better Opportunities to judge – I hope & trust that the Event may do Credit to your good Opinion of them & help to establish mine – be so good as to inform me in a post or two – where they lodge exactly – what is their establishment & mode of life – at what Expence they live – how long it has been proposed they should stay – and with what View as to Harriet in particular – I mean whether Dr Fowler has ordered she should use the Water internally or externally & to what Amount.

   The less they are seen even by People of the most serious & retired Character the better and I confess I shall be under a very serious Anxiety while the Visit continues & till I now more about it. I am Madam

                     Your obedient Servt

                                 R Ryland

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 286-87 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, II.D.5.a.(27.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs M. G. Saffery | Salisbury. Postmark: 31 August 1809.