Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Friday], 17 July 1807.

   I was glad to receive this Morng those communications from the hand of my beloved Anna, wh as they prove so incontestibly their immediate interest with the heart are no small relief to the ennui of that species of existence, in wh the “flat realities of life” are at war with the finer feelings.  Besides this yr friendship is a solace to me amid ye poignancies as well as the insipidities of life, & you alternately soothe, or enliven, as the vicissitude partakes of the exquisite or the dull – I am indeed ever & encreasingly reluctant to unite ye idea of yr Sympathy with anything Afflictive and tho’ to “weep with those who weep” be an apostolic charge, I am disinclined to admit its propriety in yr case – you of course expect the melancholy equal to the accnt of poor dr little Thos Penny – who continued to languish out his existence till last Saturday morng & then I wd hope entered on a better scene.  The Parents particularly ye Mother are not merely supported but consoled and the tear of undissembled anguish which bathe their cheeks are irradiated as it were by the lustre of that religion wh is glorious & full of immortality.  They are desirous that Eliza shd have the most pleasing views possible of their present state & indeed I believe few families in this world of tribulation exhibit a more lovely proof of what our poet says concerning christian fortitude when he tells us –

“A hope so much divine

May trials well endure”

I have you may suppose felt much of pity blended with admiration – Eliza wd have mourng sent but for an idea she will soon return this I believe originated in delicacy lest it shd seem that they obtude her on you  they are greatly delighted with yr praises of this dr Child –

   It is very late & I have scarcely time to say a word of our own affairs, but I know you will scarcely pardon an omission the Children & myself have colds especially poor Samuel, whose teeth also distress him  dr P. continues better well I might say, except a cold.  My dr S. is sadly fatigued his foreman Price being laid by without even a hope of recovery.  I am I trust very thankful that his health is unimpaired.  Ryland the Elder is delicate & wants care of various kinds she begs love & longs to see you. The little B’s are pretty well. I have a good creature in my Nursery who lived eleven years with Mrs Haynes of Westbury so good indeed that I cannot endure to part with her tho Pussy herself might be her competitor in nursing say not a word of this in yr family. – Adieu ma chere  I must say good night for conscience sake before 12 oclock

                     Yrs ever tenderly

                                 Maria Grace Saffery

If Mr Wilkins has not paid pray present ye enclosed letter  Mr S has sent ye 6 bibles & 7 address.  I shall be glad if you write to Mrs Penny – our united love to all  have heard nothing of my father since he left us –

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 241-42 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.1.(27.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs P. Whitaker | Bratton Farm | nr Westbury | 17 July 1807.  No postmark. Lines above from Isaac Watts's ‘Adoption’, from Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I, hymn LXIV, p. 57; reference also to Harriet Ryland, her young sister Lucy, children of Richard Ryland of London; and the young daughter of John Ryland, Jr., of Bristol (Elizabeth). The two Ryland families were not known to be related.