Eliza Flower at Cambridge to Benjamin Flower at William Flower’s, 47 Cannon Street, London, Tuesday, 28 October 1800.                                                                                                          

Cambridge Ocr 28th 1800

My dearest Love

   Nothing can give me serious uneasiness whilst I am blessed with your affect­ionate regard my mind is now quite recovered from the agitation which I must confess that article in your first letter occasioned me to feel & particularly when I reflected on the consequences that might have resulted between many a man & his wife on the like occasion not that I had any fears of an interruption of our domestic happiness that is not thank providence at the mercy of libellers of any description.

   I am very glad my dear Benjamin that you determine on staying another day in Town but I shall quite expect you on Thursday morning and that you might not be disappointed of an inside place I hope you will bespeak one in time.[1] We are going on very well.  I have given them all the copy you requested & have made the necessary alterations in brother Dick’s letter which on re-perusing I found a most incorrect epistle indeed.[2]

   I have this morning received a short Letter from Mr Wyvill[3] enclosing the enclosed & desiring that in case you publish Jortin’s Ecclesiastical History[4] by subscription you would add his name as a subscriber.  I have also a letter from Miss Wilson of Rotheram[5] in which she states her having paid Crook & sends you a copy of the receipt he gave her.  I have just sold the Bishop of Killala’s Narrative[6] which was in the window and we have not another in the House will you order some more and also a memorandum Book in red sheep binding—exactly the same as one you have in which your Brother & Richardson wrote your accounts—& do not forget that you will I suppose see our Mother again before you leave Town & pray my dear Love do not leave her without speaking your sentiments on a certain subject pretty freely—your ground is good & she must feel that such characters as her informers must be, deserve reprobation but whatever you say let it be said with coolness tho why should I dictate to you, who must be so much better acquainted with your Mothers disposition.  I aim only so to expose to her their motives that she might in future hear their malignant insinuation with caution.  I have no doubt but the same person was capable of remarking on the visit our two female friends made us.  I dare say my love tho you did not mention it that this also was among some of the other pretty things that passed at your first interview therefore pray anticipate the spy & informer whoever he may be  respecting my sister Mary’s intended visit to us—tho so perfectly independent do we feel ourselves & so little accountable to any human being yet I know my Benjm would go a little out of his way & I am sure I would for his sake to defeat the end & bring to nought the purposes of any villain & more especially if he acts the villain in the garb of a parson.  I know I am right for I believe there is not a man in the world who would have had the impudence or the wickedness to have hinted at your doing “dishonest actions,” but Clayton or one of his Emissaries.  We have the strongest presumptive proof—I have no doubt but thro Mrs Randall we shall obtain positive proof.  The phrase I never shall forget no never.

   Pray therefore inform your mother respecting Mary & let her know also that as you are going to part with Dalrymple she will assist me in your business till you get an Apprentice, now do be particular in this matter or you will have the same ground to go over again.

   Shall I remind you my love to call on Mr Brown[7] who promised you Mr Robinsons picture to execute an engraving from I recollect your saying you would call & therefore put you in mind—have you invited Miss Fullers[8] to see us.  Have you enquired concerning Stockdales (or rather I should have said Chauchard’s) Maps[9]—have you called at Forbes’s in the Borough; for 20 pounds worth of Chamberlains pills will be such a very large quantity will you buy for me a stick of India Glue.

   Call again on Mrs Revoult as you are so near & tell her that now I am better able to write.  She shall hear from me soon I hope soon also to write Betsey & Harriet

   It will be only one day more & we shall meet again!  What a forlorn Animal should I not be without the society of my dearest Benjm & “every body tells him he is happier than he ever was in his life.”  I believe he is—I am sure I am, & as happy as I ever expect or wish to be in this life.

   Manning[10] & I had some conversation yesterday on Infidelity &c what a cold & melancholy system it is—annihilation!—the bare Idea makes ones heart sink—but blessed be God with hopes full of Immortality.  We I trust my dearest Love are pressing forward towards the mark for the prize of our high calling[11] & then death will not separate us long—but we shall I trust meet in the abodes of bliss never never to part more.

   Miss Jennings will drink tea with me this afternoon they are just come in & desire their respects—adieu my dearest Love   I am most affectionately your

                                                         Eliza

   Remember me affectionately to all friends.  I hope you will be the bearer of a large packet of letters—tho by the bye my conscience tells me that I have no claims on my friends for any but don’t you put this in their Head.

   I hope I have contrived to cheat Numps this time which I now do without any qualms of conscience whenever I can—adieu  adieu!

   I have opened a small pot of Beef which I had left & as it appears to me too moist.  I fear what I sent to your mother will not keep long—so do not forget to beg she will use it soon—now pray remember to tell her lest it should get mouldy & so discredit me—tell Mrs Gurney also to make use of hers’ while it is good.

   A Gentn called from Fulborne[12] on Saturday hoping that you might have been returned.  Mr Dennis also regretted that he could not have the pleasure of hearing you on the Sunday.[13]  I told [him] any other time you would with pleasure go on the ensuing Sunday if they wished. Will you request Harriet to get me some more tea & coffee—& ask her what the last Tea was per pound—you must be angry if I won’t sit up to give you a cup of coffee on your return.

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. 230-33 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

References above include Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822), reformer from Yorkshire; John Jortin’s Remarks on Ecclesiastical History appeared in 1751; Catherine Wilson, a victualler at the Angel Inn in Rotherham (UBD 4.362); Joseph Stock's A Narrative of what Passed at Killalla in the County of Mayo and the Parts Adjacent, during the French Invasion in the Summer of 1798  appeared in 1800); among the Browns who were stationers in London in 1800 were W. H. Brown at 37 Leadenhall Street; John Brown at 45 Cheapside; and S. Brown at Blackmore Street, Clare-mar (Kent’s [1800]: 30); Flower’s two wealthy cousins, Sarah and Mary Fuller, were the daughters of William Fuller of the Bank of England, who left them £600,000 at his death; John Stockdale, bookseller/publisher at 181 Piccadilly, in London, published Chauchard's A General Map of the Empire of Germany, Holland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Grisons, Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia in 1800; Thomas Manning (1772-1840), the son of an Anglican minister from Norfolk, became a mathematical tutor at Cambridge and close friend and correspondent of Charles Lamb; Thomas Dennis (sometimes spelled Dennys) lived with his daughter at Great Wilbraham, near Bottisham, Cambridgeshire.  The Dennises had definite Baptist connections; both father and daughter subscribed to Robert Robinson’s posthumous tome, Ecclesiastical Researches (1792).  Miss Dennis also subscribed to the Baptist Missionary Society in 1800 (PA 2.204). Between 1800 and 1804, Flower preached regularly in a Baptist meeting at nearby Fulbourn and Waterbeach, at which the Dennis’s were frequent attendants. Miss Dennis married John Paul, ironmonger of St. Ives, in October 1802 (CI 16 October 1802).