Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Thursday, 26 October 1809.

Thursday Octr  26 1809

My ever dear Anna,

   The bearer of your first epistle has been a very welcome guest, I believe to the whole of the belle famille in Castle Street.  In the parlour circle he added not a little to the festivities of yesterday, and his departure this morng, will be at least a lessening of our vivacities.  He begged kind love to his Friends at Bratton to whom indeed he had written almost immediately upon arrival here – Mr and Mrs Blatch were expected to leave Bodenham today but I have not seen them perhaps they chose to avoid unnecessary interviews on the day of their return home wh must alas awaken reflections sufficiently formable, even to a fortitude like theirs.  They are indeed admirable proofs of the power of divine consolation, but human effort respecting them still reminds me of the poet’s beautiful illustration, so that the soothings of the most refined & genuine compassions seem from mortal life like an attempt to find “Strong Madness with a silken thread, charms ache with air and agony with words” –

   Your enquiry respecting dear P [Philip] reproved my inattention to your sympathy in all my maternal cares. The complaint in his ear is removed tho’ its occasioned him considerable inconvenience for several days after you left  Carey too has a far better use of ye disordered limb the discharge continues, wt appears to be now the only cause for anxiety – all the other children are well – my dr P has a lameness in his foot which we cannot readily account for and wh I hope will disappear before we have done for much investigation – I think now you have the sum total of the maladies, from whence you may estimate the great amount of our mercies!  These I trust are felt, are acknowledged, are recorded, and yet I confess myself just now, ill at ease as it regards the exercise of what the sentimental call the finer feelings – It is impossible to say how variously I am taught the value of society, like that, from which I drew sketches for the future, in my early life, when you, and one as interesting as – (I must leave you to fill a blank for which I can find no word,) were hourly sitting for the picture.   The alloy indeed to this felicity, was great bitterness!  and yet I am scarcely content with the vicissitude, wh notwithstanding the deficiency I speak of, has been I trust incalculably to my advantage –  O that in my experience the pleasures of godliness were a fuller antidote to the mere vexations of life! that the vapid the gloomy or agitated hour would be exchanged for the sublimest elevation of thought and the sweetest concord of the passions – but I proceed to further communications that will answer yr letter.

   R. Ryland arrived here on ye Saturday, a few hours before Salter. He passed the Sab: with us went to Meeting three times & then took his journey by the Midnight Coach – leaving behind him the same impression produced in the first five minutes of our interview.  It appears by a letter addressed since then by his Sister that all are well in the Bucephalus and that his recollections of Salisbury were quite of ye agreeable kind.  Did Salter mention his violent admiration of you? especially your face wh he declared was the prettiest he had ever seen.  Yr solicitude extends to the minor or rather the meaner personages of my family, who preside over the spit and the broom I conceive they are very well skilled in the use of these appendages, to their rank & station but alas! an utter want of principle makes them a great domestic grievance to me  I indeed feel myself ill employed in keeping watch against the petty frauds of these ignoble armies.  It may be very amusing to Ladies who are prepared alike by leisure and inclinations, to counteract the operations of the Enemy, by defensive resistance or offensive attack, the former wh I aim at for conscience sake is sufficiently wearisome and I should be wholly at a loss to direct railing artillery of a kitchen skirmish – Is there immediate prospect of any respectable person for a Cook from your neighbourhood  I wd then get you to lean on one of yr best accomplished little villagers in Martha’s place & try her, however you wd kindly suppose how Nanny comes of genial neatness  much allowance shd I know be made for local change of Scene.

   You are certainly sufficed with my remarks on this wretched subject and I am more than tired in committing the trespass on yr time – Friday Octr 27  dear S– left home this morning on his way to the Isle of Wight where he is to spend the succeeding Sabbath.  He begs love & says yt if ye Cheese with Mr P Whitaker’s wool skins &c cd be sent on by Cart or waggon to some place (I forget which he meant from)  he would hire a cart & dispatch Michael to meet it –  but we must hear our Brors opinion of the plan – 

   I am sadly shocked with recent intelligence from S &c yt the church under such circumstances shd speak tenderly indeed of angry Senators –

   Tidings from Cheltenham are still giving highly favourable accnts of Ryland’s health –  Adieu for I must only tell you of the old truth again that I am  Ever Your’s

                                                         Maria Grace Saffery

Love to my dr Bror & yr little Girls & Boys

The Cloth went with the Cake to Southampton

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 287-88 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.1.(37.). Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker, | Bratton Farm | near Westbury. No postmark. Quotation above from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Act V.ii.25-6; also a reference to Philip Whitaker, Anne Whitaker's son, once again staying with the Safferys at Salisbury. Mentioned also is Richard Ryland of London.