Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Friday], 6 December 1805.

Sarum, Decr 6th 1805

   It is with no small degree of perplexity that I attempt a reply to my dear Anne’s last letter.  I do not like you should come merely to fetch Alfred because I fear that would not only be a sacrifice of your present comfort and convenience but prevent your making a longer visit during the Winter wh I think may yet be the case.  If however you should be inclind to indulge us with what the Spectator calls a vi.* and as the Children say let it go for nothing I will endeavour to return with you at the expiration of a few days that is if you delay your coming till tomorrow week.  On the other hand, if you think you shd run any uncomfortable risk by taking ye Journey at this Season and cannot stay.  I will if the Lord please be with you @ Tuesday or Wednesday week, bringing with me Alfred & my two girls – I do not purpose by any means more than @ a fortnights stay & will either bring my nurse Maid or not as you shall judge most convenient for your family.  She has been with me two or three days and appears to suit extremely well.

   So much then for the plan wh you will please to arrange & let me have your ultimatum by Nurse.  The Children have all had Colds & slight Coughs the past week but their general health has been unaffected and I think A’s has been the lightest.  He is I can truly say in good health and spirits – I have been out of condition the two or three past days with a sore throat wh is however much better to day; it was quite of the old stamp became suddenly ulcerated – and was attended with the languor and depression I used to experience on such occasions  Wine & brandy &c were of course my remedy and these means have been blest to promote the end desired –

   My dear S. is quite well except indeed a cold wh every body seems to take for granted who knows him in the winter – I am much pleased and I hope thankful for the good news from Bratton – May we meet in the grateful exercises of that friendship wh I trust the providence and grace of God will render felicitous and sacred!

   I have many thoughts @ your little Boy sometimes I am discontented and fear you may be also at his small progress in ye graces however there is cause or gratitude both for the health of his body and the vigour of his intellect – he would be most affectionately remember’d –

   I had a letter sent back from my Cousin Harriet – she is quite well and all the family except our poor Uncle Joseph, who she says is in a very low way  many kind inquiries are made for you & yours.

   Nothing is talked of here so much as Lord Nelson the Victory the French &c &c –and in fact I sometimes think that little else engrosses me as much – our friends are in general well – & many speak with affection of you.  Yr Cousins were here yesterday  yr Aunt is much better –

   It is with some concern that I observe the great prevalence of Whiggism in our little society in B. Street  this is an old term scarcely applicable to the present day but it popped into my head from a review of recent facts so that in this way appearances are against us – but I must hasten to close or I shall be interrupted   adieu then and believe me,

                     Yours as Ever,

                                             Maria Grace Saffery

Friday Eveng –

The School closes on the Eleventh so that I can leave home @ Tuesday week –

Alfred begs me to say that he has learn’d the whole of Cotton’s Fireside and he is just agreeing with Phil to teach him Latin 

                                                                                                                                                                            *so many classes or visits he says namely  a vis a vis, a visit and a visitation

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 208-09 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 14.4.(f.), Bodleian. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker, | Bratton Farm, | to be left at the | Red Lion, | Warminster. | 6th Decr 1805.  Postmark: Salisbury.

References above are to Harriet Andrews of Shaw, near Newbury, whose father, William (b. 1743), was the brother of James Andrews (b. 1746), father of Maria Saffery and Anne Whitaker. Other references include the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place on 21 October 1805, and was the most decisive naval victory for the British in the war against France; and Domestic Happiness, a poem by Nathaniel Cotton, published, along with a poem by Robert Burns, in Glasgow in 1796.