Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Friday, 30 October 1812.

Salisbury  Friday Eveng 30th Octr 1812

   Your complaints my Anna, are certainly just; and as I have no very strong post of defence I shall not marshal the long train of every-day excuses which my station furnishes, to shelter me from ye potent remonstrances of yr affection.  Indeed I have been long silent; sometimes feeling as if I had nothing to say; & sometimes as if I had too much to attempt the limited communication of a letter.  No external circumstance has occurred to detail to you by way of novelty, or amazement, or advantage, & the interior alas! I mean my heart is so much worse than a blank page that I dare not hope to cheer you from its abundancy. I have been exceedingly occupied at home since my return and my animal spirits suffer a little perhaps from the routine of anxious and sedentary engagements which seem always performing and always to be accomplished  my health is quite good. My beloved S. too participates largely in this blessing and the sparkling eyes and blooming cheeks of my Children might serve for specimens of its luxuriance.

   Mason I fear is a little drooping, but not an acknowledged Invalid and Salter who is tolerably well endures solitude – or – me with Christian like patience. You ask about the servants or I would descend to no housewife’s detail.  Betty and the Nurse girl do extremely well but Anne Smith tho’ amiable beyond & almost, contrary to general expectation is an utter novice and is I fear destitute of those natural facilities which might render the acquirements of domestic knowledge easy  her deportment in the family is highly pleasing and I should not like what I have said of her deficiencies to be known in the Village.  I regret the selection I made of her principally, because my rejection of her services might operate to her disadvantage  as to myself I have scarcely a term diminutive enough for such a care.[2]

   But I have a few words about your melancholy friend[3] by way of improving the Subject, & then for the Mystery of the books.  This delay you will easily brook for so interesting a personage he brought hither all the serenity for which you gave him credit, and was particularly agreeable on this account for sympathy with him in other circumstances is a severe exercise indeed I provided him with a very old very elegant & very godly book, with wh he seemed much delighted & his conversation was considerably expressive of spiritual comfort. I spoke to him of your Gregory’s letters[4] for which he seemed greatly obliged & talked of writing that they might be forwarded to your boys. Their new companions in your late parcel have not occasioned you more surprise than myself & I hope less vexation.  Just as the wrapping paper string &c were provided for Mr S–  an inquiry of Salter’s @ new books induced me to ask if these were but those wh had been bound when lo! it appeared that a fragment of yr pocket book wh I had given Mason to inspect for our own use supposing they were recommended books had been handed by her to Mr S–  as an order for you, in your own hand writing, so she understood me & while I was last at Bratton she fulfilled the commission – there was a little hesitation @ forwarding the parcel, but after some debate and more laughing it was agreed yr Salisbury bookseller authorised me to say that he will endeavour to free you from the incumbrance if they are works you do not approve – adieu Salter wishes and I can only add that I am ever your’s

                                 Maria Grace Saffery

Our united love to our dear Brother – all the boys  – little Anne – you will know how to tell dear Philip that we love him.  Very kind and sincere remembrances to Lucy also –

Alas! for Moscow O! that Ghost of Peter wd frighten yr pig my destroyer of his labours!

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 339-40 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.2.(20.), Angus Library. Address:  Mrs Philip Whitaker. No postmark.  Anne Smith was most likely a daughter of Thomas Smith, at that time the Baptist minister at Tiverton; Joseph Stapleton was visiting Bratton Farm once again, but whether he has proposed to Lucy by this time is still unclear. A reference above is to the popular textbook, Lessons Astronomical and Philosophical for the Amusement of British Youth (London editions appeared in 1796, 1799, 1806, 1811, 1815, and 1824) by Olinthus Gregory (1774-1841), professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, 1803-38, and a prominent London Baptist layman. His daughter, Eliza, visited Maria Saffery at Salisbury in late December 1828, and her four letters to Saffery are available here on this website.