Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Thursday], 15 October [1807].

   To the feelings, the sentiments, that in the various character of Sister, friend, & Mother, have within ye last fortnight agitated my bosom & actuated my conduct, the heart of my beloved Anna will best direct her. I regret indeed that more than her sympathies have informed her during this period of what has been endured at Sarum. I think of the protracted illness of my dr little boy with heartfelt concern on yr accnt & have wished him home, not to be better nursed, but to respite yr anxieties, wh from my knowledge of his constitution & yr natural susceptibilities I knew must be severe.  Now that he appears recovering I do not think you will be disappointed. May the Lord confirm all my hopes! I am thankful dr Brother is better also and trust all yr alarms @ poor little Polly will soon subside in her recovery she is an interesting rustic too good I think, not to become better & I trust this visitation will be sanctified to the preservation of Spirit.  Amidst all these invalids in yr household how do I rejoice my dr Sister in the support afforded you & the health & peace that infinite kindness is granting you my satisfaction on this ground is inexpressible & I have yet ye added enjoyment of communicating, the most pleasing intelligence, of yr sweet boy, who seems to have suffer’d nothing from the shock of disease nor what to me, is yet more astonishing from medicine or confinements he is the same cheerful rosy Prattler as before.  I am sorry indeed that his bad lip wh almost disappeared in his illness has taken its former appearance & we are using Fisher’s preparation, for ye purpose.  It was rather remarkable that I took him to Mr F. on the Aftrn before his seizure who was greatly delighted with his infantine vivacity & called to see him while he was confined to his bed, but as he knew nothing of the subsequent malady & ye lip was so much better he was only inform’d of ye latter circumstance & did not go up stairs. When he saw it at his own house indeed he made very light of the affair & tho’t it of no consequence since however there is a reappearance of ye sore we apply the remedy he sent.

   There is great cause of thankfulness for the general health of the family perhaps yr tenderness wd scarcely have exempted me from the charge of indisposition a few day[s] since but I am better or rather well allowing for many exercises some that weary ye body & some I had almost said that solace the heart.  My dr S. came home on Tuesday Morng he begs love to you & our dr Bror  I think he is in for better Spirits than when you were here. He became very relieved after you left & since then ye gloom, has vanish’d.  My dr Mason whose attentions seem almost maternal, greatly alleviates my various distresses by her unremitting attention.  She wd be remembered with great affection & respect.  yr P. now sleeps in his bed, as I tho’t yt yet more secure than merely ye same room, & you need not fear his early supply of gruel.

   I wish I cd say anything of poor Ryland without inspiring vexation but alas! to think & disapprove of ye single night in wh ye sudden attack of yr little boy produced a suspension of ye bad passions & gave a sort of amiable direction to her natural vehemence  I have had very short respites from ye caprices of her temper.  When Mr S. was in Town & since his return there has been an evident intention to make, or imagine herself an enemy in me tho’ I think she cannot persuade herself seriously into this & I hope ever to have a testimony in her conscience that shall disappoint ye bitterness of her discontent.  But adieu I will say no more on this melancholy subject except it be to entreat you will pray for her, & never cease to remember in supplication

         yr tenderly devoted Friend & Sister

                     M. G.Saffery

we all send love to dr Carey & his dr Cousins –

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 245-46 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.4.c.(27.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs P. Whitaker | Bratton Farm | to be left at the Red Lion | Warminster. Postmark: Salisbury, 15 October [1807].