Anne Steele Tomkins, Malpas, to Mary Steele Dunscombe, Broughton, [Friday] 8 January 1808.

Malpas  Jany 8th – 1808

   I suppose my dear Sister you are by this time return’d from your journey to Yeovil and Devon and will be anxious to know when we leave Malpas – on the 20th of this month should providence permit we shall quit this quiet abode not without many feelings of regret.  The interesting scenery that surround it the simple manners of the inhabitants and the chearful gratitude of the poor old women have made a deep impression on our hearts but the hope of approaching nearer those we Love & promoting the future happiness of our children are powerful inducements. We go impell’d by their force. Bath is not a place that suits our taste but is a central situation & will afford many advantages – have I told you our house is in Grosvenor Place No 9 quite out of the City – we intend passing 2 or 3 weeks at Overn before we settle in our new abode – as you have to oblige the movements of your Friends I will tell you our plan is to go to the Passage House Wednesday the 20th – sleep there & proceed to Dr Cox’s the following day – we shall be much occupied till we remove – Dr Cox comes today & will stay till Tuesday on that day we expect three friends from Brecnockshire who will remain with us till Saturday – of course the short time afterward, till we depart will be all bustle. It gave us all sincere pleasure to hear of Mr Ds amended health.  I hope he will be more careful to preserve it in future.

   We have lately become acquainted with a gentleman from London who is entering on an extensive trade in this country who would probably have been a great acquisition had we continued here. He is a very intelligent man of a Literary turn & has a large family probably Mr D –  may  have heard of him his name is Smithers – he pass’d one night here & at parting presented us with a book which contain’d poems lately publish’d by himself & some exquisite engravings – this was an interesting circumstance in our genial path. I hope Mr D will not think I am determined to differ from him when I confess after trying to like his second alterations of your lines on our dr lost friend – I cannot think it any improvement.

   I have not seen Beaties Life but hope to get it at Bath – We all enjoy our usual health interrupted by now & then a trifling cold – the weather is now delightful mild as the breezes of Spring but we must not expect it to continue – Martha bids me say she should have written to you but thought you were a letter in her debt – She unites with T and the children in love to you & Mr D – adieu my dr Sister  I am with sincere

                                             affection yours

                                                         A Tomkins

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, p. 372 (annotated version); STE 5/11/xiii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. Postmark: Newport 11 January 1808. Address: Mrs Dunscombe / Broughton / near Stockbridge / Hants.

Dr. Joseph Mason Cox lived in a house called Overn at the Fishponds, Bristol (see above, nn. 330, 592). Henry Smithers was the author of Affection, with other Poems (London: Printed for the author, by T. Bensley, and sold by W. Miller, 1807). He was a deacon at the Baptist congregation at Maze Pond, Southwark, was a coal merchant in St. Mary’s, Overys’s Stairs, Southwark, in partnership for many years with his uncle, Henry Keene. Also above is a reference to Mary Steele’s poem on the death of Lucy Kent, and an allusion to Alexander Bower's An Account of the Life of James Beattie, LL.D. Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic, Aberdeen (London: C. and R. Baldwin, 1804).