19 May 1769

Mary Steele, [Yeovil,] to Mary Scott, [Milborne Port,] Friday morning, 19 [May] 1769.

   Forgive my Dear Myra the numerous Faults you will discover in this scribble. I would send you the other but the last Verse is intolerably bad & my Aunt was so kind as to say she would correct it so if you are desirous of having it you shall when I have the pleasure of your Company at Broughton.  I received a letter from Marianna & Myrtilla yesterday both the Bodemites & the Brotenites were as well as usual & desire their Compliments or rather their Love to my Myra.  I expect with impatience a Letter from you every Letter from a friend is a valuable Pearl I hope those charming Verses will be inclos’d.       

   I must desire you to be ready by Thursday 9 oclock as we intend if possible to call by that time as it is so troublesome to get a Chaise.  My Papa thinks it better to call on you in the Morn.  Adieu My Dear Friend.  May nothing happen to disappoint the pleasure I propose my self in the enjoyment of your Company.  My Compts await Mrs Scott & am your very affect Friend 

                                             Silvia

Friday Morn 19  1769

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols.  (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 3, p. 206; STE 5/14/i, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No postmark. Address:  Miss Scott / Jan 70 [this date was added at some point after the letter was written and is not the actual date of composition]. The partial date at the end of the letter, ‘Friday Morn 19 1769’, is 19 May, the only Friday that fell on the 19th during 1769. Mary Steele prefaced her letter with her poem, ‘A Reflection Wrote in 1768’  (see  Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 3, pp. 56-57).