Eliza Gould at Bedford to Benjamin Flower at Cambridge, incomplete and undated [Sunday, 15 December 1799].

My dear Benjamin

   As I shall find it necessary to go to Kempston to morrow I will to gain time begin my letter this evening & let me first say what has been most in my mind since we parted at Bedford that I hope & trust you arrived safe at St. Neots—last night I had but little sleep—& I must not deceive you by saying “I am quite well to day” tho I am much better since the morning—Have been to Meeting twice in the morning heard Mr Claypole who in his prayer told us that “our sins had perforated the clouds” & so little did the sermon edify me that I resolved in the afternoon to hear Mr  Burkitt.

   I do not expect much pleasure from my Kempston visit—the Sunday School which I left in so prosperous a state is declined almost to nothing however I shall endeavour to re-establish it if possible & should the attempt prove fruitless I shall at least have the satisfaction of discharging my duty.

   I call’d on Mrs Smith last evening. She appeared much hurt at a letter she had received from you—I will tell you what passed when we meet but do not write to her again till I see you—your papers did not reach Bedford on Saturday —I cannot conceive what has occasioned the delay—she says it has several times happened & that they have sometimes come to hand so many days after time that those to whom they belonged have refused to receive them.

   I cannot have a place in the coach on Wednesday the whole being taken by a school.  On Tuesday the Kettering coach goes through Bedford I shall perhaps return to Town in it—if not Thursday is the longest time I mean to stay here.

   And now my dearest Love taking for granted you will attend the sale at Linton I will just suggest to [you] a few particulars respecting the furniture.  I would advise you to purchase—supposing you should meet with a carpet for the dining room had you not better take the dimensions of the room—buy one if you can with the pattern in squares something in the style of Mr John Gurneys—the colours if possible green & brown olive—without much or any red—the most genteel carpets are without any set pattern of flowers.

   If you can purchase a servants bed I would have you—bedstead & bed tye but do not buy blankets or sheets—I mean blankets of a small size—perhaps you might be able to buy a large pair of blankets cheap & you cannot err I think if you go in time & consult Mr Isaacson. We shall want a good counterpeace for the Best Bed but it should be a very large one.   We shall also want a smaller but I would not have you buy any unless they are a bargain—perhaps (as you will find there plenty of beds) it might answer well to buy 2 bed tyes to make one large one.  I suppose there are many school beds & they are generally small & perhaps it might be worth while to purchase two should the tyes be much lower it would be of no consequence as we should want the Feathers only.  I am not sure of being right in this particular I only suggest this as a hint on which to consult Miss Jennings & Mr Isaacson—you will purchase some chairs for the parlour above stairs if you can—should they not be in very good case it might be worth while to have them new painted   a dining Table we shall also want—I could wish a square Table with circular ends but the size should be in proportion to the length of the room—we shall also want a small dining Table for the little parlour—you will buy a celeret—tho perhaps we shall not want such a piece of furniture having a closet in the room—we shall also want a clock yet even this article we can do without for a time unless you can buy one well worth your money—chests of drawers we shall also want—I should prefer single to chest upon chest the latter being inconvenient from their height—A glass for the dining room we must have & 2 swing glasses for the bed rooms—but I would not recommend you to purchase anything without your consulting Mr Isaacson.  I now wish we had known the value of any expensive article of furniture before we left London had you not better my Love see Mr Isaacson on Wednesday night & enquire of him the expence of articles of this kind lest he should not be able on Thursday to advise with you—he would tell you the worth of a carpet of such & such dimensions of a glass &c.  Chairs I would by all means wish you to purchase there if possible they would prove such carriage from Town—but such a thing as a carpet the carriage from London would be but a trifling expense—we shall want some blinds for the back window or we shall be overlook’d by the office.  Suppose you were to take the width of the windows before you go in case you should meet with any—I shall not set any glass between the parlour windows—but either opposite the chimney or over it.  It should not have a Train with much ornament  they are made now with a fluted pedestal on each side & a single ornament at the Top, but if we cannot do as we would my love we will do as we can—you will in buying a feather bed recollect that the lighter they are the better they are  do not buy one that is heavy for the size there is no article I should be sooner deceived in than in buying a bed …

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. 211-13. 

After Eliza returned to London at the beginning of December, she departed again for a brief visit to Kempston and Bedford, where she had served as a governess the preceding year; she was accompanied on her trip by Eliza Gurney, her close friend in London and a member of the Baptist church in Maze Pond, Southwark. Flower had taken Eliza to Bedford, after which he traveled on to St. Neots. There he visited his friend William Foster (1769-1837), a successful brewer in St. Neots and the older brother of Ebenezer Foster of Cambridge and a member of the Baptist congregation in St. Andrew's Street.  William Foster had recently married Martha Lyon, daughter of William Lyon, also a member at St. Andrew’s Street in Cambridge, the same congregation in which Flower had worshiped since 1793, though by this date he had parted ways with Robert Hall.  William Foster was a member of the Particular Baptist church at St. Neots, where John Stevens was the minister.  Both Foster and Stevens were subscribers to the Baptist Missionary Society in 1804-05.  

Thomas Claypole (1772-1825) was preaching in place of Samuel Hillyard at the Old Meeting, Bedford.  At the time of the above letter, Claypole had just begun his ministry at nearby Rushden.  His salary was a paltry 16s. per week, supplemented by a grant from the Particular Baptist Fund.  Claypole left Rushden in 1804 for the Baptist church at Bratton, where he ministered until 1809, the same congregation in which Jane Attwater Blatch and Anne Andrews Whitaker worshiped.  Claypole then removed to Bloxham, where in June 1813 he wrote the Circular Letter “Growth in Grace” for the Association of Baptist Churches meeting in parts of Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Glocestershire.  From 1818 to 1823 he pastored the Baptist church in Yeovil, Somerset.  Eliza’s impression of Claypole’s preaching may have been indicative of most of his hearers, for his churches experienced little if any growth under his ministry. See W. F. Harris, The Romance of a Northamptonshire Baptist Church (London, 1901), 47; Leslie Brooke,  Baptists in Yeovil:  History of the Yeovil Baptist Church (Bath: Ralph Allen, 2002); Baptist Annual Register, vol. 4, p. 28; Joseph Ivimey,  History of the English Baptists, 4 vols. (London:  Printed for the author, 1811-30), vol. 4, p. 314.

Thomas Burkitt (1756-1833) was born in St. Ives, Huntingtonshire, and educated at Daventry Academy, 1785-80.  Before coming to the Second Church (Independent) in Bedford in 1796, he pastored the Great Meeting (Independent) at Hinckley, Leicestershire (1780-83) and the Old Meeting, Buckinghamshire (1783-96).  During his time in Bedford, Burkitt also operated a school for boys (Cambridge Intelligencer, 25 June 1796).  He worked closely with Hillyard and preached at the Old Meeting as late as 1819. He removed to Kenilworth, Warwickshire, in 1804 and remained there until his retirement in 1816.