1793 June 8 (Anne)

Anne Andrews, Isleworth, to Maria Grace Andrews, Salisbury, [Saturday], 8 June 1793.

My d^r Sister

I will not now attempt to set before you the various reasons which have prevented my returning a more immediate Answer to your Letter, a principal one I will however name, it was the despair I felt at the first receipt of it, with respect to the accomplishment of our long intended Journey – I trust now that I may indulge a reasonable hope of seeing you in the course of a fortnight, but I am so accustom’d to Disappointment that I desire never to be unprepared – Miss Ovenden has been some time with me she leaves me next Monday – I know her kind love attends you – I have no time to devote to the pleasures of friendly & sympathetic converse – my Father is not apprized of my long delay in returning an answer for your last – I desire you will write immediately on the receipt of this and let me know upon recollection what things in my possession would be suitable or agreeable to you & I will bring them with me I wish also to be inform’d whether you desire to have the Manuscript of the Novel with your other Papers –

I feel great solicitude respecting your health – & hope my d^r Grandmama’s is by this time establish’d –

Adieu my d^r Love may the God of Heaven bless you with all joy health & peace & both in his good pleasure hasten & prosper our meeting

Your sincerely Affec^te Sister

Anne Andrews

June 8^th 93

Remember us tenderly to our d^r Relatives – I know my Father would not be forgotten to you

Text: Reeves Collection, Box 14.3.(e.), Bodleian Library, Oxford. Address: Miss Andrews | M^r Harding’s | Exeter Street | Sarum. Postmark: illegible; for a fully annotated text of this letter, see Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, p. 53.