Maria Grace Saffery, Holcombe, to Jane Saffery Whitaker, Bratton, Friday 27 May [1842].

Flint House May 27th

Dearest Jane,

         My trunk will tell you that I am coming home I must dispatch it by Padfield this Eveng and on Monday if the Lord pleases kind Robert Green will take me to Bratton, to the peaceful dwelling of my beloved Child – May the God of all grace be with us there! I have no time for detail; but I am thankful that the general report is good – the Children are in very tolerable health. Candy is returned a convalescent, Robert seems in a flourishing condition and dear Annie as well as may be hoped or expected just yet. The family party go to Bratton about a week hence.

         And so the little birdie that was caged for a while in sweet Auntie’s bower has taken wing. I shall miss her wild notes – they are sometimes touchingly addressed to the heart that watches as mine had watched over wild and wayward and enchanting infancy – I am called away – Alfred is here and delightfully well after his Devonshire tour – present all our loves to every dear one.

         Yours beloved Child by the tender holy ties of friend and Mother

                                             M. G. Saffery.

Friday Eveng

I wrote to Marianne just before her birth day and promised a Sonnet for the occasion – perhaps you will put it in your next letter if you write before me.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 438-39 (annotated version);Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.5.c.(4.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Joshua Whitaker | Bratton.  No postmark. The sonnet mentioned above has not survived among the Saffery/Whitaker papers, although a birthday sonnet to her son, Samuel, in 1841 can be found in Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 5, p. 230.