Eliza Flower at the Creaks, 69 Cornhill, London, to Benjamin Flower at Cambridge, Wednesday, 29 December 1802.

                                                                     Cornhill Dec 29 1802

My dear Benjamin

   I received yours the moment I was ready to set out for Mr Creaks—still better & better I continue to get & trust I shall meet my dear Benjamin in as good state of health as he can expect me to be.  You did not say to what Inn at Ware you would direct your paper  really my love I must admire that Minutiae of kind attentions you render your Eliza.  I am perpetually cautioned to guard against being made a spoiled child of—to morrow I mean to go to Hackney.  I should not think it proper to go there to dinner & so I shall call about twelve or one oclock sending word first that I will wait on your mother at her own time.  Friday I intend to make a day of rest according to my dear Benjamins recommendation.

   The Bill you sent will be quite sufficient for my purpose & as I do not mean to come soon again to Town I have laid in a stock of very great bargains mostly in remnants except 3 pieces of Indian book muslin which got damaged in the Thames & has a stain which as I have made the experiment  I find all washes out  I have bought at 2s/ a yard what I have often given 7s/ & 8s/ for  Mr Lee says he has sold worse for nine—the Haweses have been & bought two pieces—Mrs C & the Miss Hensmans[1] have bought 3—& made other purchases to the amount of £14.  Sophy will not sell any of her muslin under a shilling a yard profit nor will I—I mean to dispose of some of my muslin as I shall not want it all but not of my remnants.  I could were I in that kind of business make a very profitable [illegible] in french smuggled lace but I have not purchased any because I could not with propriety dispose of any quantity.   I can buy lace for 11s/6d which would [be] thought an extreme bargain at Cambridge at 15s/ or 16s/—I have sent customers who have altogether laid out £20.  I have bought some for trimming my baby caps for 20d a yard which I could not have purchased at Cambridge under 2s/6d—by the bye I have 3 more caps for trimming as presents 1 from Harriet Hawes 1 from Sarah & 1 from Mary Ann[2] they will be all full trimmed—the 2 elder Hemmings are working two more for me.[3]

   I hope Mary will be attentive to get the beds well aired with a warming pan of coals every day the top room especially as it has not been slept in so long.  I hope the Bed will be washed in time & aired also the counterpanes—& I do hope that there will be nothing to do when I return not even a bottle of wine to be put in its place—we shall be down to Tea—& she need not have the carpet covered.

   I hope the sheets will be very well aired she should hem the ends of the piece of quilting that goes over the drawer.   I could wish Mary to put the large Ham in soak  I mean Mrs Ibbersons—it is the blackest ham & one that is the roundest cut of the two—she must be very careful not to dress either of the Hams which were last smoaked. There were two large ones in the House before one was blacker than the other—she should put the blackest in water for some days perhaps it would be better not to dress it till Monday when you have the Turkey or possibly you may [think] it best to have it boiled on Friday to leave it in readiness & I am rather enclined to the latter plan it will take 5 Hours I think, & perhaps had better be sent to College—let some pie be made on Saturday.  There are gooseberries in bottles in Anns room make some also of damsons & of apples if you like.  I believe my dear love I have quite tired you with directions—the dinner is put on Table   all have sent kind regards—adieu my dear Benjamin.

                                 I am your truly affectionate

                                             Eliza

I can buy better Tea in London for 5s/ than I get in Cambridge for 6/ lump sugar 9d/ pr pound very good 10d.

The following note appears on the back page in an unknown hand:

Mrs Flower desires me to say Hemmings Jackson & Creaks papers were not delivered at all.

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. 273-74 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

References above include Mrs. Creak and her sisters; Harriet Hawes’s younger sisters; and the two sons of John Hemming.