Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [c. late summer 1814].

My dear very dear Bror & Sister,

   You will easily judge of ye pleasure ye late intelligence from Bratton has convey’d to my anxious heart ye return of my dr S – was in every respect calculated to cheer me  he was mercifully preserved by ye way & bro’t tidings of my dearest Anne even beyond my pleasing expectations while I exquisitely feel I do not wonder at ye frequency of yse depressions she yet labours under  I know what they are in a time of great, tho’ not equal weakness – & if ye dr Patient will reflect on some of my conjectures after Js birth she will not be surprised at any of her own gloomy speculations – I am persuaded yt in such seasons, there is nothing too desperately whimsical for ye imagination to pourtray of ye melancholy kind  may a gracious God speedily envigorate her delicate frame – & abundantly cheer her soul by ye visits of his face – She must remember what she has told me yt religious experience is very poorly investigated at such a time by ye suffering party –  “All things are yellow to ye jaundiced eye” –  I am sorry for ye troublesome malady wh has been introduced into ye family however this requires only philosophy in ye retail way – & there is nothing very formidable in it – in such a situation as yrs I hope dr Anne will not be disturb’d by it – we cd not get any fresh Prawns, but if yy are likely to suit pray let us know & we will send ye earliest opportunity I have heard they are very good for weak folks eaten at breakfast

   My dr husband is gone again & will be out till to morrow night I am as well as may be reasonably expected – P–  also is pretty well – let us hear immediately if you please how you go on my love to ye ladies of ye bed-Chamber I am inexpressibly obliged by their assiduous tenderness kiss ye boy’s Joshua & all for us – we unite in love & I must hastily subscribe myself most affectionately

                     Yours

                                 M G Saffery

Sarum  Wednesday Aftn

We have taken Miss Haskins’s box but dr Anne can bring it with her when she comes – wh in due time I doubt not will be a pleasure enjoy’d thro’ ye tender mercies of our God.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 343-44 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.4.c.(9.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs P. Whitaker. No postmark.  Most likely this letter dates from late summer 1814, after the birth of Anne Whitaker’s last child, Edwin, on 22 June 1814.