Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, [7 August 1812].

Salisbury Friday Eveng –

Dearest Anna,

   Mr Wood has at length produced the Stuff which I do not like to retain till I get Anne’s hat; & Philip’s shoes – therefore I hasten a line with the aforesaid article that you may know of our general welfare &c &c  dear S– and the children are all well and I am certainly not on the invalid list except I refer to moral maladies and of these I am sick indeed!

   Mason & Mary return’d the day after you left in high health & spirits.  Parkinson has reformed little M’s mouth by taking out four of her teeth – Salter & Lucy both unite in love the latter looked anxiously over my Shoulder just now & said remember me to her & tell her about … I fancy she meant Ardleigh for a letter came from thence this Morng rather of the agreeable kind – the same post brought her a very insolent epistle from Croft, and Archer, in answer to one she mentiond having written to you after a certain visitor had intimated their wish for a renewal of correspondence.  I am always glad for my part when such persons speak in their proper language and think it worth while to be honest – there was a letter also from Wick by which it appears that Nanny Smith needs not be hastened as Mr G’s house will not be inhabited even by the Servants ’till Michaelmas – I anticipate mortification for poor Sarah but she does not seem discouraged – Miss R – seems intent on her visiting Bratton to which she is positively averse unless it were only for a very few days –

   Your account of the dear little Pedestrian Heroes rejoiced our heart.  You may depend on our concurrence in silencing the rumour – I will try to write again soon  my heart is always full when I think of you when I think of our early friendship, of our early sorrows of our unitedness in our separate path, in the pilgrimage of life – the variety however will be of little moment if the end be one – Adieu it is growing late adieu.

                     Maria Grace Saffery

Remember me to our dear child & in the same language of love to each of your’s – our kindest regards to our good Brother. I was at Bodenham on Sab. Eveng  We were then as well as Mourners could expect to be   Maria has been quite ill since with the tenderness of her Chest she is I hope something better.  I have thoughts of stepping over to morrow afternoon when I will deliver yr message.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 336-37 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.4.c.(5.), Angus Library.  Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm. No postmark.  Letter can be dated by the reference to visiting Bodenham on the previous Sabbath evening as mourners after the death of Mary Drewitt Attwater on 30 July. The "Miss R –" is Lucy Ryland; "Maria" is Maria Attwater.