Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, [Thursday], 4 February 1819.

Salisbury  Feby 4th 1819

My dear Anne

   You know that I pursued my journey, thro’ the cheerless hours of that stormy day in which I ventured forth from the warm habitation of Bratton farm weary and solicitous we arrived at length before the gates of this Chelwood House.  The twilight gloom of the cloudy Eveng Sky was thrown over the face of things and gave an Aspect of almost frowning Solitude to the faded Mansion.  I saw it prevail over the courage of my dear little fellow traveller who entered the dull abode in a sort of speechless agony. But I dare not trust myself with the picturesque or the sentimental to night.  I dare not recall the emotions which crowded my heart in that moment of distracting anxiety.  I will tell another time what I felt and feared at least that portion of it which language can express –

   I have not been well since my return, but I am better satisfied about the Child I have heard twice & received one letter which I suppose to be his own.

   Tell the dear boys at Bratton to be thankful for their Station tell them also that I am not forgetful either of their want or wishes and that I will attend to both with all possible expedition, but my nerves want a little leisure and my engagements will admit of no such thing – Anne is quite well and very good, growing I think in favour and attractiveness  Adieu yr Bror is looking at his watch & wants to close his parcel to Mr E– Adieu

                                 Yrs ever M. G. Saffery

I have written a line to Alfred about his little neighbour.

Miss Dear is quite a nice girl.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 374-75 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.3.(13.), Angus Library.  Address:  Mrs Whitaker. No postmark. References above are to Maria Saffery's son, Samuel; the Revd Robert Edminson of Bratton; and Mary Ann Dear, daughter of Joseph Dear, schoolmaster and Baptist minister at Chelwood, near Chippenham, Wiltshire (letters to Maria Saffery from both Dears, father and daughter, can be found in the Saffery/Attwater Papers, acc. 142, II.A.7, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. 

Young Samuel's experience at Chelwood House was not particularly a good one. He remained there through 1822, but his experience was marred by the harsh tactics of his schoolmaster, which may have been foreknown to Maria Saffery, provoking the anxiety expressed in the above letter. Writing to his brother Samuel (at that time working in London) on Christmas Eve, 1822, John describes Dear’s school as ‘fast declining’. In a scene that would have been appreciated by Charles Dickens, John continues:

Last half year the Vincents were to go at the Quarter, but their mother wrote to say that they were to stay till the end of the half.  Mr Dear, however, striking Frank for some trifling matter when he went out from Dinner, he attempted to write home & Joseph Dear went & told his Father who came out & gave him a half-dozen ... [in a note to the side, Samuel writes:  ‘Strokes with the Cane’ understood – an ellipsis well known at Chelwood House’] This was on a Sunday and the Exeter Mail going down he attempted to go home by it but the Coach being stopped he was obliged to get out. After that for a full week Mr Dear kept him close prisoner but he succeeded in writing home when his mother sent for a Gig for him.  Thus ends the history of Poor Frank….

See the Letter Book of Samuel Saffery, Reeves Collection, Box 17/7, Bodleian Library.  One letter by Dear to MGS can be found in the Saffery/Attwater Papers, acc. 142, II.A.7, Angust Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.