Benjamin Flower at the Creaks, 69 Cornhill, London, to Eliza Flower at Harlow, Essex, Wednesday, 31 October 1804.

                                                                          Cornhill Oct 31.

7 o’clock Morning

My Dear Love

   I wrote to you by last nights post, and as altho’ I did not go to bed till one this morning, I awoke soon after 5 & could not sleep afterwards; I am up thus early in order to converse with you about that time I generally at home begin my conversations with both my Dear Elizas.   

   Waiting for Miss Fuller yesterday I took up a pamphlet which lay on the mantle piece; it was a small collection of letters to Parents on the life of young Children &c. Some of them were so very affecting, that my eyes were filling, & I was obliged to put the book down least Miss F– should find me in tears.  I afterwards told her the circumstance and she said she did not at all wonder at it.  In addition to what I mentioned in mine of yesterday, I found she had lent Conder 300£—sometime since. Instant she appears to me to lend or give every body who asks her.  After a very agreeable visit I took my leave; but soon after I got on horseback it began raining and continued so to do the whole of the way; the morning being so very fine, and I being always hot in riding, I did not take my great coat.  I was therefore pretty well soaked; this I should scarcely have minded individually, but I thought my life of some consequence to my two Dears; I knew how very uneasy one of them would feel if she knew my situation; I therefore resolved on the best preservative; I took on the road two glasses at intervals, of Brandy & water, that is I drank two bumpers of brandy, and I am sure I had a proportionate quantity of water on my outside.  To ease you at once of all these fears with which your mind is now filled; I add (that altho’ I called at Lombard Street, and at Tom Conders before I changed my cloaths) I never was more free even from the slightest cold than I am at this moment; and I will be sure to tell you how I continue before I finish my letter in the evening.

   Well—Could you think that Chatteris or Langston or both, and for I cannot help suspecting both seemed resolved to give me farther trouble about the money.  Miss Fuller was so positive “that she left explicit directions with Mr Chatteris & Langston, that she told me she was sure Mr C–would at once pay me, and could not account for Langston’s forgetfulness.” I asked her if she mentioned the sum.  Certainly she replied.  “I supposed all along you would have 500£ & I knew you had only had 200£. I mentioned 300£ they were to pay you.” On my entering the Country house at Lombard Street, I saw C– and mentioned the matter to him; he said Miss Fuller left no directions with him but he could ask Mr Langston, the latter came in and again he said, he did not hear her mention any thing about the matter.  I just read to them that part of her letter relative to the business in hand; and while this scene was passing ­Yapp came in with a scowling countenance; Chatteris with apparent civility asked me to stay [for] tea but I was anxious to get away; which I did, saying the matter was of no other consequence than that it would detain me a few hours longer from home.  I immediately wrote to Miss F– but mentioning the matter to Creak they advise me to see her again; and recollecting how letters may be trifled with at Lombard Street I am resolved to go as soon as I have breakfasted with Conder (at half past 8 by appointment) and I shall talk to Miss Fuller a little freely.  It is well my Love, I do not keep you in suspence a post, but finish my days proceedings before I send my letter.  This business I must finish before I attend to  anything else.   And altho’ the loss of time will be only a few hours to day (as I must at all events have visited Miss F–) I shall make up my mind to not to go to Miss Middleton’s at Charing Cross but settle the matter with her by letter on my return.  And I think I can do it quite as well as by seeing her.

   You will laugh at me when I tell you that I took the wrong road yesterday morning, and that I did not discover my error till I got to Hackney Turnpike; this however turned out tolerably well as I was thereby enabled to visit my mother for a few minutes; and only delayed me half an hour and increased my ride 2 or 3 miles.  She was just the same as when we saw her, excepting that her limbs grow weaker.

   But I must bid you adieu for the present.

Wednesday Eveng

   My paper will not allow me to relate the particulars at length of my interview with Miss F– to day.  When I told her what passed, she was so provoked and agitated that I never saw her so before.  Said it was impossible Chatteris could forget what she said, because when she told him—Cousin Ben Flower wants 300£—be sure to let him have it when he calls—Why said Mr Chatteris—You know he has had 200£ already—“What of that he wants 500£ in all, and therefore he must have 300£ more.” Well—shall we send word by Mr Barnard next week—“No I’ll write myself tonight, as I am afraid he may have wanted the money: if he can call on me when he comes to Town I shall be glad to see him; but be sure to let him have it when he calls.” She then cried bitterly said she was so tormented in one way or other about her money matters, that she did not know what to do: and asked me how she should manage the matter.  I told her I thought her best way would be to draw a draught. “Oh dear I never thought of that, I wished I had” and directly went up stairs for a Check which she filled up for the sum of 300£—but in such agitation that she said “I hardly know what I have written, see if I have done it right.” She indeed had blundered so that they would have scrupled paying it, if she had not corrected it.  When this was over I was determined to tell of the Speech that was made about my visit to Mary Fuller, which she was much surprised at.  Yapp’s name was not mentioned.  On parting I said—“Cousin let me give you a piece of advice which I see is necessary to your happiness.  Surely if any person has a right to be independent you have.  Do not suffer yourself to be thwarted or influenced by anyone: and when you have made up your mind, go by your own judgment.  I should not wonder if some pretty speeches were to be afloat about the present business.  You will do me the justice to acknowledge that I never used any art to obtain a shilling of either your sister or yourself; Altho’ I hope I shall never be wanting in feelings or expressions of friendship and gratitude for your repeated kindness.” But my paper obliges me to conclude.

I enclose you 5£—Love to Dear Eliza.  Have no room to say anything about other matters.  I will not on any account stay longer than Saturday morning.  You have not [illegible] price flour cloth 2d hard is [illegible]—do not forget this by return of Post.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould, 1794-1808 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2008),  pp. 292-95 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). The Flowers moved to Harlow in the second week of August 1800. In a letter to Messrs. Vernor and Hood, booksellers in the Poultry, London, 2 August 1804, Flower writes from Cambridge: “I have to apologize for being a few weeks after my time in putting Robinsons Village Sermons to press; we remove to Harlow next week: my New Types & every thing else are ready: and I shall put by my Edn of Robinson’s works & every thing else till the Sermons are ready finished …” (Isaac Mann Collection, National Library of Wales). The issue with his cousins, the Misses Fuller, mentioned at the end of the letter, came to a fruition in 1813 (click here for a complete discussion of the Flower-Fuller-Maitland controversy).  

References above include The Parent’s Assistant: or, Stories for Children, by Maria Edgeworth (1796), which appeared in a 4th ed. (six volumes) in 1804, published by the Unitarian printer and bookseller, Joseph Johnson; Thomas Chatteris, of 80 Cornhill, one of the partners in the banking firm of Fuller, Chatteris, & Co., 24 Lombard Street, London, of which Sarah Fuller’s deceased father had been the principal owner; John Langston, Sarah Fuller’s cousin, was a banker with the firm of Langston, Towgood, and Amory at 29 Clement’s Lane, Lombard Street (UBD 1.ii.47). Langston served as M.P. for the borough of Bridgwater, Somerset, 1790-96, and once again in 1806; Yapp most likely worked for Fuller, Chatteris, & Co., or Langston, Towgood, and Amory.  Like Langston, he too was Sarah Fuller’s cousin (Flower, Cautionary Hints 12); Miss Middleton was the daughter of John Middleton, a London artists’ colourman who lived in St. Martin’s Lane, next to Charing Cross; either John Barnard (1765-1858), a wealthy miller and maltster at Harlow Mill, or William Barnard (1775-1852), John’s younger brother; Sarah Fuller’s younger sister, Mary, died in 1804.