Benjamin Flower (at an inn at Ware, on his way to Cambridge) to Eliza Gould at Dodbrook, near Kingsbridge, Devonshire, Friday, 18 October 1799.

   It was indeed my intention, my earnest wish to devote the first hours of my Liberty to her with whom I have spent my sweetest hours in confinement; but my Dearest Eliza you will not, I am sure impute it to anything, even bordering on unkindness or inattention.  I have been so much engaged and hurried yesterday and to day, that I have been unable to write a line, and I know snatch a few minutes, while the horses are changing, and I am sipping a little Tea, to chat tho’ ever so little, because I am fearful you will be uneasy at not hearing from me, more especially as there is no post to morrow, and it would be Wednesday next before a Letter by Sundays post would reach you.

   But the Coachman tells me he cannot wait a minute—I am therefore obliged to conclude.

                                             Ever yours

                                                         B Flower

Oct. 18. 99

Ware

Quite well

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould, 1794-1808 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2008),  p. 157.