Benjamin Flower at the Creaks, 69 Cornhill, London, to Eliza Flower, Bridge Street, Cambridge, Wednesday, 5 October 1803.

                                                         Cornhill, London, 4 oclock—

                                                                     Oct 5. 1803—

   You have my Dear Love, heard of my safe arrival part of the way, as I met Mr Ingle (Fourdrinier’s Traveller) as I [was] walking out of Royston before the Coach set out; he promised to call in the course of the day—The last object I attended to after I left your Chamber this morning, was our Dear Eliza, and had she not been sitting with great dignity, mingled with her enchanting smiles, on her Chair of State, I should certainly have ran the risk of being too late by taking her, her morning visit to the Books & the Birds.

   I found the air as I walked down Trumpington street, so very mild, that altho’ it spit a little I mounted the Top Roof, buttoned my great coat, and as you know I take extra care of myself, put on my red net round my neck, My Umbrella saved my hat.  The rain or rather mist soon ceased, and I took my Companions (altho’ I had nine already on the outside of the Coach) Sir Richard Hill & Daubenny out of my Pocket, and was much amused with the Methodist and the High Churchman. Some excellent materials for the Dissenting Book I am to write (Heaven knows when) and of which our Dear Eliza is to exclaim—“This my Father wrote”—at Royston, I called and drank 2 Cups of Tea with Mr Fordham. He had just received a letter from Hertford.  Sister Flower is mending tho’ slowly, and is able to walk about her chamber with Crutches.  After my walk up Royston Hill as before mentioned with Mr Ingle, I re-mounted.  Tho’ there have been two or three showers they were slight, and I did not experience the least inconvenience nor had I a wet thread about me.  My Great Coat was the exact thing.  I got thro’ my 8vo Vol: I know not that I ever had a more agreeable solitary ride; the dust laid, the air remarkably soft, and the Trees and hedges having on their beautiful autumnal dress.  I got off at the 4 Swans, & with my light baggage under my Arm, came to Mr Creaks.  Mrs C & Miss H. [Mrs. Creak and her sister, Miss Hensman] [are] gone out to Dinner.  Mr C and I are going to set down to dinner together almost directly.  I here found a letter from Mr Aspland full of friendly invitations &c. insisting on my preaching for him on Sunday.   When my last letter arrived, Mr Scott was at Mr Asplands.  All recommend me to go by Portsmouth, as it will only make me an hour or two later, and it is only one third of the distance by sea.  Mr Scott therefore expects me to Breakfast to morrow morning; and who should be there but Harriet Hawes?  As soon as I had read Asplands letter, I enquired about the Portsmouth Coach, found one set off from the X Key’s Gracechurch Street; went and took my place; returned, began my letter, and am not yet called to Dinner.  I suspect my Dear Love, I shall not be able to write to you from the Isle by to morrow’s Post, but in that case you may depend on hearing from me from Portsmouth.

   I have now only to add Take care of yourself, pray go to bed every night by ten o’clock, because you are then sure of 2 or 3 hours good sleep, & the most refreshing.  Not the least occasion to add Take Care of Dear Eliza.  There my Heart is at perfect rest.  Indeed my Dear love we must endeavour daily to resign this dear part of ourselves to God.  This is the best way to have her preserved to us.

   I shall expect a long Letter on Sunday Morning more especially as you have two days to write it in.  Farewell my Dear Love, give Eliza a kiss for me every time you take her in your arms.

                                 Ever your most affectionate

                                             B Flower

Slipt down stairs after Dinner to put the letter in the office myself.  Will brush myself up to go to Scotts.

Text: Flower Correspondence, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; for an annotated edition of this letter and the complete correspondence of Eliza Gould and Benjamin Flower, see Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould, 1794-1808 (Aberystywth: National Library of Wales, 2008), pp. 277-78. Eliza Flower, the eldest daughter of Benjamin and Eliza, was born on 19 April 1803.  She would later become a well known musician. 

John Ingle was an attorney for Cambridge University, coroner for the County of Cambridgeshire, and clerk to the general meeting located in Trumpington Street (Holden’s [1805]: 2.49).  He was the nephew of John Gifford, who in 1771 purchased, along with Ebenezer Hollick, Sr., of Whittlesford, the Wimbish manor in the parish of Shepreth, located between Cambridge and Royston.   Gifford became lord of the manor by 1775, and upon his death in 1795 the estate passed to Ingle, which he maintained until his death in 1832.  

Sir Richard Hill (1732-1808) was the brother of Rowland Hill (1744-1833), a famous Evangelical preacher in London. Richard Hill became a follower of the evangelist George Whitefield and the Calvinistic Methodists in 1757.  He entered Parliament in 1780, representing Shropshire.  He frequently made references to the Bible in his speeches and at times was ridiculed for it. Flower is referring to the pamphlet war carried on in 1798-99 between Hill and Charles Daubeny (1745-1827), son of George Daubeny, the wealthy Bristol merchant.  While ministering that year in a free church he had founded for the poor in Bath, Daubeny published his Guide to the Church, a series of lectures that proposed a way for the union of dissenting parties within one church.  Hill responded with An Apology for Brotherly Love and for the Doctrines of the Church of England. Daubeny then replied with An Appendix to the Guide to the Church (1799), which argued that the Church of England was essentially of apostolic origin and any dissent from it was akin to schism. Hill immediately followed with his Reformation truth restored, defending nonconformity and the virtues of evangelical preaching.   Hill left Parliament in 1806 and died two years later.  Daubeny was rewarded for his services to the church by being appointed Archdeacon of Salisbury in 1804.

Robert Aspland (1782-1845) was at this time pastor of the General Baptist church in Newport, Isle of Wight. He would later serve a lengthy ministry at the Unitarian chapel at Gravel Pit, Hackney, maintaining a close friendship with Flower.  Russell Scott (176o-1834) was the Unitarian minister at Portsmouth. His wife was the former Sophia Hawes, daughter of William Hawes, the close friend of the Gurney family. Scott's sister was Mary Scott (1751-93), the poet and close friend of Mary Steele (1753-1813) of Broughton, the niece of the hymn writer, Anne Steele (1717-78).

Others mentioned above include Edward King Fordham of Royston, William Creak, Mrs. Creak, and her sister, Miss Hensman of Kimbolton.