Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Saturday, [20 September 1823].

Saturday Eveng

My dear Anne,

   This is not a moment to write or to speak of sorrow, and sympathy – every thing is to be thought and felt; nothing can well be altered or expressed.  I imagine every countenance of distress the sigh of the chief mourner vibrates on my heart, but who can dictate the language of commiseration with a tone so tender as not to torture the wounds of woe by the very touch that is intended to heal them.  And yet there is a voice to be heard in the stillness and solitude of retired distress that can subdue the wildest throb of agony and breathe balm thro the bitterness of death itself – “that voice is behind” you now. It has reached your ear, it has glided like heaven into your heart which heaves with an impulse of joy almost while it returns the sound of “blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” Carey’s letter lies before me and I thank him for it, but what shall I say to the proposal it contains? The inconvenience of a journey or of my absence from home must not be put in competition with the hope of alleviating the suffering of your heavy hour but without this hope I shrink from the purpose.  I am not afraid of the House of Mourning if I can be a comforter alas! I cannot recognize myself in that character, and to be a mournful guest for a few days would scarcely authorise my leaving this circle of cares and duties and anxieties I shall not hesitate however if by return of post you can tell me that my company will suit or soothe you.  Can I help dear Alfred’s Mother to comfort her son! My Husband my Children my friend unite in sentiments of regrets & tenderness for you which they can find no expression & I am now as by many a sorrow past.

   Your sympathising friend & Sister                              

                                             Maria

Lucy must not leave you on my accnt  she must be a guest to me when she comes & not a labourer in my absence.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 389-90 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.3.(20.), Angus Library. Address: Salisbury Sepr 20th 1823 | Mrs Whitaker | Bratton Farm | near Westbury.  Postmark: Salisbury, 21 September 1823. Alfred Whitaker and his new wife, Sarah, had established their first residence at Frome, where his younger brother, George, was attending school. The above letter is one of several that concerns the death of Sarah Waylen Whitaker. Maria Saffery composed a poem at this time, dated 25 September 1823. See  Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 5, pp. 113-14.