Eliza Flower at the Creaks, 69 Cornhill, to Benjamin Flower at Harlow, Saturday, 26 January 1805.

                                                                     Cornhill January 26

My dear love

   I am rather disappointed at not seeing you to day particularly as you cannot come by the Stortford Coach on Monday, I received yours with its enclosure this morning as it has happened I shall have no occasion for it because Mr Blow left his—pray my love come on Monday either by mail or Norwich expedition otherwise Monday will be quite lost to you & I dare say the funeral will be on Wednesday.  I should think from the disorder & corpulency of your mother they cannot keep her longer—you must have a compleat suit of mourning, your waistcoat & small clothes will look shabby with a new coat besides you have no other than those for every day wear.  I have purchased to the amount of 1£..4s..0 in frocks petticoats & bonnet for my dear girl—for myself I shall purchase nothing at present tho my mourning is almost worn out.  I shall wear what I have bad as it is till I get about again & wait to see whether my dear Benjamin has been treated as he deserves but I much doubt it  I assure you my love I am prepared for every species of insult & injury that villainy can devise—but let us thank providence that they have it not in their power to mar our happiness.  I would advise you by all means to act as tho you apprehended every thing had been conducted properly.  I would call on my Brother Willm& make enquiries as a party concerned should do, who were your mothers executors.   I should by all means attend her funeral.  If the family were invited & I was not, I would attend the funeral as an individual, the world will do you the justice you deserve & you will have the satisfaction of having discharged your duty—if it was not a meeting by invitation then I should go of my own accord as one of the family—by all means come to town on Monday early as you can see your Brother Richard who will be at market & he will give you all necessary information as he was with your brother Willm on Thursday.  I dread nothing so much as the Idea of your sitting down with such a set & having the mortification to hear yourself treated in your mothers will as an outcast but I know should that be the case you would conduct yourself with that composure, dignity, &firmness which conscious rectitude inspires, nor envy them their basely acquired lucre  your friends already begin to feel indignant on your account at the base Idea of the nefarious proceeding tho some expect it.

   Mr B Flight says if your mother has not treated you like a son he should charge it on your Brother Willm& Mrs Clayton & that whatever mischief they have done will be apparent to the world because long, very long since your mothers prosperity received any diminution she has often expressed herself in most affectionate terms of you to him, & appeared delighted at your going on well & he says he recollects your telling him some time also that you knew your mother never meant to make any difference between her children—but however a little time will determine & really the addition of a few hundred is not necess­ary to make us happy, or to add much to our happiness—let us be thankfull  my dear love for this mercy.

   If you stay in London the whole of next week I must endeavour to return without you  it will not do my dear Love to have Eliza here & am anxious to get home.  If you have not reason to be satisfied with your mothers conduct I certainly would not meet the family at a place of worship the following sabbath—therefore my advice is that you come to Town early on Monday & then act according as circumstances dictate. Your Brothers is a rascally letter but he must be a miserable man.

   I am going to Walworth this evening. Miss Fuller wishes me to drink tea with her to morrow.  I think I shall after spending a quiet day with Mrs Gurney return to Lombard Street to tea & then I shall be ready to meet you in the morning.  I think it will be less trouble to you to wear up your mourning.   Mary will put you up Shirts hand’ks & neckcloths wear your Boots any stockings will do as you must have a new pair—all this while I have hardly said a word about our dear Treasure  pray charge Mary & Lydia well to care for her.  Mary has nothing else to do.  Mrs Creak has your shirt.  I suppose you will have a letter from Wm Flower to morrow—it is most strange & others have remarked [upon] it that Clayton & his wife should keep the event so secret  some think she must have been rummaging.  Mrs Flight is acquainted with the person where your mother lodged & will enquire what passed—pray do not suffer your mind to experience any dejection strive against it, consider your mercies your           comforts—your treasures in wife & child & be uncomfortable if you can.  I expect how you will find yourself treated & shall neither be surprised nor hurt you shall sell your annuity to Miss Fuller & all things will work together for good

                                             Yrs ever 

                                                         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. 299-301 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

The Norwich Expedition, which was both “guarded and lighted,” set out every day at 3 pm from the White Swan, St. Peter’s, Norwich, and passed through Newmarket and Harlow on its way to London, where it arrived early the next morning at the Bell and Crown, Holborn (UBD 4.7); Flower’s mother died on 24 January 1805.