Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Friday, 15 November 1805].

My dearest Anna,

   I am thro divine goodness enabled to send off my Intelligencer in far more cheerful circumstances than on the preceding Friday, my nipples are nearly well tho’ the milk is yet troublesome  I am unexpectedly straitened for time this Eveng so much indeed that I actually writing this while the woman is drawing my breast rather an odd sight!–the Children are all well, your Alfred never better in health, his temple a little irregular this Eveng it was mere trifle and I should not have mention’d it only I suspect that you think me a flatterer. He begs most affecte remembrances & talks of home with great glee –  he is much pleased @ the intended thanksgiving &c ….  I spent part of yesterday with Mrs Dunscombe & return’d this Morng  they say at Broughton that you must contrive to visit in these Holidays. I ought to say a great deal in reply to your letter wh I recd this morng with as much pleasure as a little blushing wd allow of I have much to say in reply but have only time to observe now that our arrangements here are quite in favour of Brors proposal.  But we cannot put up with a solo visit tho’ yr dear Self is to be the principal performer. At any rate some of the dr Children may accompany you.

   We are both languishing for a sight of our niece. I know not when I shall be able to leave home on accnt of the servts  – so that at all events you must fetch dr Alfred  my S. is just return’d  I am afraid it [is] quite  late enough for the begging you to pardon ye abrupt adieu of

         Yrs most faithfully,

                     M G Saffery

Friday Eveng

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 206-07 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.4.c.(19.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm | to be left at the Red Lion | Warminster.  Postmark illegible.   Maria Saffery was nursing her daughter, Jane Saffery, born on 1 May 1805; Anne Whitaker's daughter, Emma, was born on 25 October 1805.  Reference above also to Mary Steele Dunscombe (1753-1813), niece of Anne Steele and, like Saffery, a gifted poet.