Eliza Gould at Dodbrook to Benjamin Flower at Cambridge, Wednesday, 20 November 1799.

                                                         Dodbrook   20 Novr 1799

   I am sure my dearest Love you will not think me remiss tho my letter to day be nothing more than a mere Bulletin of Health.

   I am almost afraid my last was calculated to make you uneasy I feared after I had sent my letter off that the mention of the rest I was obliged to give myself every day would alarm you—& I felt very uneasy the whole evening.  Yesterday & to day I have not experienced the faintness of which I have so often complained to you & I really am so much better than when I wrote last that I wish with all my heart you were now by to see how well I am.

   It is now my intention to leave Dodbrook on Thursday or Friday.   I shall hear from you on Wednesday or Thursday morning here according to my last request—suppose you direct your next in course to be left at the post office  Exeter—I must stay there a day—Then I shall go on to Wellington & remaining there as short a time as possible proceed on to Bath—under the blessing of providence I hope to be at Walworth by Saturday sennight that is fortnight from to day.  I think this will be allowing myself time sufficient even for any delay on the road which might arise from the circumstance of meeting with a full coach—a disappointment not unlikely to take place to a person travelling as I shall do by short stages.  The Plymouth coach goes but 8 times a week thro Totness to Exeter & it does not always happen that a place can be obtain’d—in such a case I should be obliged to wait there a day.  I have heard from you to day—Well, well I will not repine & make myself uncomfortable that I cannot make you a return more congenial with my feelings than such scraps as I am often under the necessity of writing—but anticipate the prospect I have before me—& indulge a hope that the time will soon arrive which will give me to enjoy our society—then will I convince you how truly I am your faithful

                                             & affectionate

                                                         Eliza

My affectionate regards to Miss Jennings.

My parents & sisters affectionately remember to you—adieu.

If I had written a longer letter I should have disobey’d your affectionate injunction for I have yet a letter to write & have been scribbling before I wrote this—there’s one specimen of obedience to your commands already.

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. 200.