Anne Andrews, Isleworth, to Maria Grace Andrews, Salisbury, [Friday], 19 April 1793.

   I think my dr Grace if she reflects one Moment, cannot need to be informd of the ineasiness, not to say alarm, a silence of two Months must have exercised in the Breasts of those, whose tenderest cares, whose dearest affections, are center’d in the Person of whose welfare they are thus ignorant: indeed I should long ago have espress’d my Grief & impatience at not hearing from you, had it not been for receiving a letter from Mrs Scott in which she mention’d having heard from you, which eased in some measure my anxieties, & induced me to wait thus long.

   With respect to any Illness or indisposition which you might labour under, I comfort myself, by relying on your observance of the frequent, I may add, solemn requests, I have made you at Parting, & since, not on any account to delay informing me of it –

   You cannot forget how often I have warn’d you not thus to trifle with our peace – as for the health of our dr friends I have more reason to fear, as I do not recollect giving you any charge of that nature respecting them, I entreat therefore you will not lose a day in returning an answer to his.

   My Father is well and desires best love for myself I cannot say much, but only that I am better than might be expected, from yr solicitude I at present experience, in addition to the accustom’d depredations made in heart and spirits.  I have no time to spend at present in epistolary converse I hope ere long to enjoy the benefits of personal but do not make to yourself disappointments, by calculating the exact longitude of that expression, “e’er long” no I can by no means do that myself –  

   Adieu my dr Sister I would commit you now, as ever, to the protection of the Universal Father, whose infinitude is more interestingly display’d, & equally glorious, in his gracious condescension to the safety of Individuals, as in the highest exaltations of his Might

                                 Yours

                                             Anne Andrews

April 19th 93

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 52-53; Reeves Collection, Box 14.1.(h.), Bodleian Library, Oxford. Address: Miss Andrews | Mr Harding’s | Exeter Street | Salisbury.