Eliza Flower, at the Creaks in Cornhill and then at the Gurneys in Walworth, to Benjamin Flower, Cambridge, Saturday, 18 December 1802.

                                                                          69 Cornhill  

Saturday Decr 18

   My dear Benjamin will not chide his Eliza for letting him know how she does from 69 Cornhill [the home of the Creaks] after having a ride from Walworth.  The expence of a letter will not affect him as such a circumstance has affected some of your Cambridge acquaintance nor will he enter on the sabbath services in a less thankful frame to find that his own Eliza is so much better as to feel no fatigue from her ride.  I am my dear quite comfortable this morning & in very good spirits to morrow I hope to go to meeting at Maze pond which will afford me another days gentle exercise indeed.  I feel so very thankful at having been enabled so well to perform my journey that I [can]not but let you participate with me more especially as you could not hear from me till Tuesday—respecting Marys gown she had better have Miss Pate for Tuesday or Wednesday & in my next I will send word how they are worn   she should buy a lining in readiness.  Mrs [Rebecca] Gurney came hither with me & we have to make some purchases at Wickendens &c as it is the last Basket you will have to send I wish if it is not inconvenient to you that you would make Mamma Gurney a present of a couple of fowls for Xmas day as I overheard them say that they should not have any, poultry was so uncommonly dear.  I would not have you send them anything so expensive as a turkey—but let the fowls be very fine  if you send them the basket you need not send till quite convenient and let it be directed to me at Walworth as usual as it will be no different to send Mrs Hawes what is purchased for her from Walworth.

Walworth half past 3 oclock

   I am this moment got Home & less fatigued than I could expect to be.  I thank my dear Ben for his long scrap.  I had seen his sermon at Creaks.  You see I had anticipated your wish of writing to day—pray let me have a very long letter on Monday morning  I hope Ann goes on well and gives you & Mary satisfaction tell me when you write & whether the house is clean & comfortable & the windows cleaned.  The best carpet should be looked at.  I am almost afraid the mice will not treat it genteelly as it is in the front Garret—neither should it lie in any other form than lengthwise & in a roll—perhaps it had better be brought into the front room where after being rolled up at full length & inside out it should lay under the windows from one end of the room to the other—also request Mary to pin the napkins or what is a better way to sew them on my Bed curtains.

   I wish Mary could examine the raspberry vinegar as some of the Bottles had some flies in it she should strain it off & put it in fresh bottles.  I would not have used in common as I have so little left also there is some bottles of catsup in the back parlour bottom closet as many I believe 5 or 6 which I have an Idea would be improve[d] by boiling it over again with a little whole pepper a small quantity of alspire [alsike?] & a few cloves & a race of ginger bruised.  I shall be glad if she will do it soon & well cork the bottles—she will also look over the Jars & see that the capers &c have plenty of vinegar & are well tied up.  I will thank her to do this on Monday—give my love to Mary.

     Adieu my dearest my own Benjamin.

                                 I am your most affectionate

                                             E Flower

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. 265-66 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site).   "Mary" is Eliza's younger sister, who had been living with the Flowers since 1801.