Anne Steele, [Broughton], to Marianna Attwater, [Bodenham], undated.

         I thank you my dear Cousin for y.r kind Letter & am glad my request has at last prevail’d on you to leave omit relinquish the Madams the ceremonious epithet but still you don’t write freely.  What now is there of apology to a & without Comp.t  In writing to me you shou’d think you are talking to a friend who loves you & the oftener you write the easier it will be to you  I am afraid you are growing more reserved to me & shou’d be sorry if any fault of mine shou’d be the occasion—your Letter has a hint or two of complaint of your self but have you not some hopes & comforts to tell me—write me your fears & hopes your pains & pleasures, or rather bring them your self very soon if your Mamma can spare you—I expect Miss Jenny’s company when her Cousin is gone to Yeovil if your friends at home are well & your Mama cou’d spare you both together for once it wou’d I shou’d acknowledge it a double obligation my self doubly able it would give me great pleasure—I have as usual in the  Winter very indifferent health & have not been abroad a long time but the prospect of approaching spring seems a little reviving—excuse the idle scribble on the other side present my respectful & affect.te Comp.ts with my [illegible word] Duty to both Family’s & believe me my dear Cousin your sincerely affect.te Friend

Nanny sends you her service she has not lost her ague but desires you will come & try if the pleasure of seeing you will send it away

To Marianna  

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 328-29 (edited version); STE 3/12/ii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No address page. On the back of the letter Anne Steele has copied ‘Some expressions of D.r Dodridge to a Friend a few days before he embarked for Lisbon’. Jane Attwater and her older sister, Marianna, would often visit the Steeles in the 1760s and ’70s, especially when their cousin, Mary Steele, would make her annual visit to her uncle’s at Yeovil. Anne Steele is chiding Marianna for addressing her in her last letter as ‘Madam.’