John Saffery, Bodenham, to Jane Saffery, [Portsmouth], [Friday], 13 June 1817.

Attached to the letter below is a letter from Maria Grace Saffery to Jane Saffery, dated 12 June 1817.

Salisbury, June 13, 1817

My Dearest Jane,

         Your dear & invaluable Mother, says I must add a line of news, but I have none to communicate, except that I intend going to Devizes on Monday morning, & shall take your Sister & Cousin with me, where I expect either William or your Uncle to meet them.  Oh yes, I might add that Mr Chapman of Frome called on Wednesday to say that his Daughters will come to School after the vacation. You will be pleased to have your circle enlarge by them, & some others – I love my Jane, to see you & your dear companions happy & I long that you may all possess the greatest possible blessedness – Many, very many, are the cries which ascend from the hearts of your parents to God for the salvation of yourself & your brothers, & sisters – Ah! my child, you are a sinner, you never have or can feel a pang of body or mind, but here it is to be traced but there is a Saviour, yes, an Almighty Saviour! yet remember, none are saved by him but those who humbly & believingly seek to him. May a gracious God make you so to do – Daily read the bible, & as constantly pray to this merciful God – Take care of your health – remember me suitably to your kind friends. Mr & Mrs Ireland, & Mary. My love to your Aunt & Martha – I hope Miss Horsey has received good tidings from her Aunt &c Love to her & Mr Horsey – Farewell my dear little Girl, that God may bless you is the prayer of your affectionate Father

                                         John Saffery

I hope your dear Mother will go to London with me & Mrs Rowe & Emma next Monday week but it is determined – I am pleased with the verses on your birth day, preserve them.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 359 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.5.a.(2.), Angus Library. Address: Miss Jane Saffery. No postmark. Jane Saffery did indeed preserve the verses her mother wrote, and they now reside in the Reeves Collection, Box 17/3, Bodleian Library, Oxford, transcribed and published in Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 5, pp. 110-11.  Here is the poem:

 To Little Jane, without a garland, on her cold birthday, May 1st 1817

Ah, this is not the land of flowers,
The blast is on thy vernal bowers,

But there’s a sky that never lowers;

                     A brighter sky, my Jane.

And this is not the land of smiles,

The tear-drop even thine beguiles,

But there’s a land it ne’er defiles;

                     A better land, my Jane.

And this is not the land of song,

My harp of joy has slumbered long,               

But there’s a lyre more sweet and strong;

                     A living lyre, my Jane.

The balm of flowers that ne’er decay,

The light of smiles that ever play,

The song that never dies away,

                     Betide thee, O my Jane.