Anne Whitaker, Bratton, to Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, [c. mid-June 1830].

My dear Maria,

   I feel grieved that your letter should remain so long unanswered and could I have replied satisfactorily it would in all probability have been earlier – I had some time since received intimations of Marianne’s kind wish to see me at Weymouth and though I cannot go yet pray tell her that her invitation alone did me real good inasmuch as her affectionate remembrance of her invalid Aunt cheered my Spirits which too often sink under the influence of pain and weakness – Besides many other impediments I shall place myself at rather too great a distance from Holcombe under existing circumstances and subject myself perhaps to some hurrying circumstance for which I am ill prepared – I have been and am still endeavouring by as much quiet as I can obtain and by as many airings as the weather will admit for the desired attendance on dear Anne – for which indeed I feel at present very incompetent for I have been very poorly through the whole of the spring and very ill some part of it. – I am at present considered better but you will judge of how little I am capable when I tell you that with the exception of Mr Hall’s I have not heard but four sermons these six weeks two of which were on the same day. –

   I have several things to get through and Sunday guests to receive before I go to Holcombe more particularly Mrs Alfred and the baby who above all must not be neglected.

   I also feel that I should stay a little while with George who returned last week – poor Edwin is again gone to Town in default of any better thing coming before us – I am in some anxiety respecting him – His mind has appeared of late much impressed with the importance of religion – but I fear the torrent will be too strong for him – O that my dear ones might all breathe the purer air of the country and be exempted from the many evils which seem almost inseparable from a residence in the metropolis. –

   I am much pleased to learn that dear Marianne’s prospects are encouraging I shall truly rejoice in her success – Should we be prevented from meeting in the vacation I hope to find a little leisure this autumn (should it please our heavenly father to   strengthen me) to pay you a visit – we do meet seldom indeed but it is not I trust from want of inclination on either side – I have been wishing much for several weeks to see you but have not been sufficiently able to undertake the journey.   

   Your brother has been from home since Tuesday Joshua is still rather poorly but I hope is only wanting the benefit of a few fine days to set him up –

   Pray excuse the manifold defects of this and believe what I can but ill express the tender and solicitous affection of

         My dear Maria’s

                     Friend & Sister

                                 Anne Whitaker

Love to dear Jane                                          

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 416 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 20.2.(e.), Bodleian. Address:  Mrs Saffery. No postmark. Alfred and Catherine Whitaker’s first child, Alfred Romilly, was born on 22 April 1830; another grandchild was about to be born in Holcombe. George Whitaker was now attending Queen’s College, Cambridge University, where he would complete his B.A. in 1833 and M.A. in 1836.