Eliza Gould at Bedford to Benjamin Flower at Cambridge, Wednesday, 18 Dec­ember 1799.

My dear Benjamin

   Your last letter has proved a great relief to my mind—my sleep has since been sweet and my dreams pleasant—it was not my dearest Love strictly the case before.  This must of necessity be a very little letter but I must write this evening lest you should be uneasy tho I have been running about Kempston & elsewhere & my Bedford friends have monopolized too much of my time to allow me to write such a letter as I could wish to do—but however short my epistle I will sweeten it as much as I am able by assuring you that I am very well & since I know that you have escaped the dangers that my foreboding Spirit anticipated would happen to you—I am very comfortable.

   To morrow I fully intend leaving Bedford in the Kettering Coach I feared I shall ride in the snow.   Shall I see you this week—yes I hope I shall—but after all I must desire you will consult your business & convenience.  When I feel & know that you will hasten to me as soon as prudence will allow you I am quite satisfied.  I wish you would suffer me to remain Eliza Gould one week longer than new years day—I wish it because I have every thing so much at sixes & sevens that I shall not in so short a time find opportunity to arrange matters to my mind however if you will exact from me the performance of my promise [I] will comply with your wishes.  I mention it now that you might have the opportunity of making any arrangements that might arise in consequence do not my Love  suffer this request to disappoint or make you uncomfortable—I am still passive in the affair—I only request—have you written your Brother

   Adieu my dearest Benjamin   I am your most sincere & truly affectionate

                                             Eliza Gould

Bedford

Wednesday night

Decr 18th 1799—

Kind remembrance to Miss Jennings & Mrs Roope

I have written almost the whole of this letter in the dark & have now 2 or 3 families to call on—adieu adieu

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. 214.