Eliza Flower at Cambridge to Benjamin Flower at the Rev. Robert Aspland’s, Newport, Isle of Wight, Friday, 7 October 1803.

                                             Cambridge 7th Octr 1803

My dear Benjamin

   Ere this time I hope you are at the end of your journey in safety, tho I was not well satisfied at your mode of travelling to London, as the day here was for the most part damp, and rainy—it was very kind of you my love to write me so long a letter, when I expected no more than a very few lines, I assure you I made the better breakfast for it, & I am not a little pleased that you have had an opportunity of seeing Harriet, to whom I hope you have said all that is needfull in my behalf.  I will venture to say you have made no apology for my silence that is inconsistent with truth, but still I think you have, in the language of the Old Phrase, done all in your power to “help a lame dog over a stile”—however Harriets friendship I cannot afford to lose neither can I bear to think of my many sins of omission tho on the score of letter writing much might be said to exculpate me in general.

   Our dear girl is quite well, & as gay & playful as a kitten, I could scarcely have conceived that the retentive faculties of a child, at her tender age, could have been so strong—the strength of her recollection I put to the test this morning at breakfast every time the door open’d she appeared to watch very attentively I thought for you—& “where is Papa” said I, “to take Eliza to see the Books, & the birds”?  She looked earnestly at me for a moment & as if she was thinking profoundly, & burst into tears.  I took her directly into the Counting House where on recognizing her old friends whom you have taught her to love so well, all her little griefs subsided.  I often think of our admonitions, & at the thought my heart almost sinks within me but the more she twines as it were about my heart, the more I feel the necessity of considering her as a blessing, which kind Heaven has lent us to enjoy by the day only, & therefore a blessing which calls for daily thankfulness.  May God Almighty preserve us to each other, & our dear girl to us both, & I will not repine whatever trials in this deranged state of society we may have to encounter.

   Great events are now teeming into existence & God only knows what part we may be called to act in the mighty drama.  I find the people are daily more & more alarmed at the Idea of the approaching invasion; I need not say hasten home as soon as you possibly can with convenience for should any armament be seen in the channel, I fear the moment the alarm was given all passengers in certain districts would be stopped, especially those travelling through London.  I assure you I awake every morning in the expectation of hearing some new rumour.  It is somewhat extraordinary that within a few days, such a scarcity of silver has prevailed that if you would purchase any article w[h]ere a few shillings are required in change, you cannot get any—Mr Bandyshe called to pay for his paper, & I thought I could no where have procured the change for him to do it.  I was obliged to borrow of every person in the house—he said Mr Fisher told him that application would be made to government for a coinage of half crown notes.  Nicholson of Bradford has written almost in the words of his former letter only more impertinent—Bebbect of Devizes has sent a draft on London for his account, & another—Wise has remitted Conder his account—Bently has sent 1£-5s—that is what I have received—adieu

                                 my dear love I am faithfully & affectionately

                                             Your Eliza Flower

you will make my kind respects to Mr & Mrs Aspland.

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. 279-80 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

References above are to John Fisher, who operated a linen-drapery business in Cambridge, or William Fisher, a Cambridge banker and woolendraper (UBD 2.491); J. Nicholson was a printer/bookseller in Bradford, Yorkshire, who served in 1801 as Flower’s agent for the Intelligencer; William Wise was an engraver, 16 New Street, Covent Garden (UBD 1.ii.339); Thomas Bentley was a printer, 6 Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London (UBD 1.ii.71).