Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, [11] October 1805.

My dearest Anna,

   Company repeatedly thro’ the day, & unexpectedly to tea, sup, & sleep, forbids anything more than a line of mere information  I bless God this will be of the more desirable kind dr Alfred is well & has been a good Boy today.  The dr Child would write if I cd  give him an hour to dictate but this is now impossible  I have left my company to tell you all this.  Indeed I am sorry to be so bad a correspondent but my engagements are my excuse dr S & the Children are well &c thro much mercy am yr very very tenderly attached

                     & anxiously expecting friend & Sister

                                             Maria Grace Saffery

Salisbury  Friday Night  Oct 10th 1805

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 205 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, 1.B.1.(19.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm | to be left at ye | Red Lion | Warminster | Wilts  | 10th Octr 1805.  Letter is misdated: should be 11 October.