Mary Steele [Dunscombe], [Broughton,] to her niece, Mary Steele Tomkins, Abingdon, undated (c. 1802).

My Dear Mary

   We are all very much disappointed that we have not the pleasure of your Company but we hope when the flowers bloom & the Birds sing again we shall run about the Garden with you – we want our pretty Dear little Paddler very much the Plaintain is got so thick now you are not here to root it out – you must bring Dear little Emma one of these days & teach her to paddle too – we have had a pretty little Girl here who wish’d very often for you to play with her – Miss D & Lucy beg their Love to you – & you must kiss Emma for me – I hope My Dear Mary will continue to be a good Girl & then all her Friends will love her & in particular her Affectionate Aunt

                                 Mary Steele Dunscombe

A note in Rev. Dunscombe’s hand follows Mary’s portion:

   Uncle D also must send a line of love to his dear little Mary; he longs to see her at Broughton, not only to paddle with him in cutting up the plaintain roots in the Garden, but to spell and read and write and tell and hear little pretty little stories with him in his Study: But, Mary if you cannot come to see Uncle D before Spring, you must remember all the pretty Stories which Papa & Mama tell you this Winter that you may repeat them to Uncle and Aunt D when you come; and you must be as good as a little Girl can be, always minding what Papa and Mama say to you and doing what they bid you, and then Uncle and Aunt will love you dearly, yes, better than any other little boy or girl in the World.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, p. 352; STE 5/13/i, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.   No postmark. Address: Miss Mary Steele Tomkins / Oakley House. This letter, written during a winter month, dates from c. 1802, after the Dunscombes returned to Broughton from Yeovil.  Mary’s relationship with Thomas Dunscombe appears to have improved, or else had become a topic no longer discussed.