Eliza Flower at Dodbrook to Benjamin Flower at Harlow, Sunday 6 July 1806.

                                             Dodbrook Sunday July 5.  1806[1]

My dear Benjamin

   This morng I am now getting strong both in body & mind but thoroughly comfortable I cannot expect to be whilst you are in such a state of spirits as the style of your letters to me too truly indicate & I shall my dear love cut my journey as short as possible in order to be soon at Home with you for I do not expect you will be better untill we are again in each others society.  I do not much like your being alone & wish Betsey Gurney was with you but I hope to be at Harlow in a fortnight & then we shall I trust meet in restor’d health with grateful sensat­ions & in the hope that we shall never more be so long separated from each other in this life.

   To morrow we go to Plymouth that is my sister Grace & myself.  John came over last night & goes to morrow in a post chaise with us & Mrs Freeman & my sister.  Mary will meet us at Plymouth with all expectation & I believe Mrs Armitage also will go down with them we mean to return by way of Tiverton & John will accompany us if he can  he also will return with us to London if possible but this I suppose must depend on his business.  Poor fellow it is well he has so much to occupy him for tho I can see he endeavours to brave his disappointment yet at times I perceive his feelings get the better of his resolves—he has to be sure been most infamously used as you will find when you have an opportun­ity of comparing conversations, letters, & their answers.  John tells me he had not entered into particulars with you as he knew I had & as he should have the pleasure of soon seeing you.  He said he told you that his mind was at ease on the subject but I think he should have said he hoped it would be so for I am sure he has not yet forgot the affair. I should wonder if he had but he is certainly to all appearance better than when we parted at Ottery.

   All that I have said to you respecting Johns conversation with Miss Hawkes & what has passed between them Tete a tete you must consider as being spoken confidentially it would be a great impropriety to make those matters a subject of conversation it would display a degree of meanness in my brother to speak of such things; besides I drew as it were the secret from him & he regretted afterward that he had told me—therefore my dear when you speak of the affair you need only speak in a general way that Miss H– gave my brother the greatest encouragement & you can also repeat her conversations with you on the subject.  John read your last letter to me & thinks with you that the matter ought not to close thus—he will write her a letter which she shall feel as soon as we get to Plymouth.  He thinks that Unwin must have some tye on her of which we know nothing about, & that after she gave encouragement to him Unwin exerted his influence with her & exerted it successfully—at any rate she must have acted with duplicity & nothing can excuse her conduct & so you will find when you are acquainted with the whole affair.  I must entirely exculpate Mrs & Mr Hawkes & they felt the necessity of exculpating themselves to you by writing you that note.

   My Father is not in very good Health the Gout attacks him in all ways—my Mother is in excellent health.  John brought my father 50£ last night for a present before he can do something for him in a more permanent way which he means to do as soon as he can get his matters settled—he has fast hold of Teed & means [to] hold him fast.  John is getting on in life as fast as possible—has very little to do with precautioning & had part of the Unity for the sake meerly of getting into Mr Fillis’s Connection which is one of the first in Plymouth—he runs no risk that can injure him & cares nothing about the matter—in his other business he gets on rapidly pays 150£ a week for warehouse, wages, & barge hire, for unloading stowing the cargoes committed to his care & has a clerk or two to assist him.  He bought at a prize sale on Friday 20 Tun of claret at little more than 8 pounds per Tun & sold it for exportation the same day for 15 pounds per tun also a quantity of soap. A gentleman of Plymouth called on John soon after his return from London & wanted to know what interest he could possibly have with the Treasury—for that a Mr Bishop who is in the Kings Proctors office had informed him that a message had been sent to that office to enquire if any thing could be done for Mr Gould of Plymouth.   If that be the case Ld H– Petty paid more attention to your letter than you were aware.

   John promises himself much pleasure in our company at Plymouth—he has taken Lodgings for [us] & as it happens he has got me in the House where he is himself—I preferred being in Lodgings to going to [an] Inn he intended us to [have] done the latter but as I know he would be at every expense himself & knowing him to be a very liberal caterer I did not wish him to be at any unnecessary expense.  We talked last evening a great deal about your Honour & John & my father thinks there is not such another man in the world as Benjamin Flower.  John is anxious to have the Newton mill.  He says he could carry on with his foreign connections a most extensive war trade & that when you once get into the channel of getting out your goods they sell for a higher proffit than in time of peace  he has now a very large order for manufactured woollen goods for which he shall receive the Future proffits & prompt payment—the goods are what he calls Long Ells  he says he can carry on a business of this kind too any extent & make it pay 50 pr cent to the manufacturer   he would have you join him if they can get the Mill.  Thomas is about it—he has mentioned it to Windeatt—we have heard that Lardner went to purchase it.  Our situation in point of business is somewhat singular & harrassing but providence has dealt so very bountifully with us that I can not bring my mind to believe but that God is dealing with us in mercy—this dispensation I will hope is but one of the leadings of his Providence & by & bye my love the cloud will dispense & the hemisphere brighten around us.  Hope my dear children are well  I shall begin like a child at school to count the days that are to intervene before we meet again.  I will write you again about Thursday.  Tell Bet to be particular that Sarahs bowels are kept in a relaxed state.

   I am sorry the ham turned out so bad & cannot account for it as Jane salted it herself—she had better cook the other small ham directly as you have pease now in season.  Kiss my dear babes for me.

                                             in haste ever yours

                                                         B  Flower

John desires his respects & the rest likewise

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. 322-24 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

Eliza has incorrectly dated the letter.  References above include Mrs. Hayne’s daughter and Eliza’s cousin, from Tiverton; William Fillis, a wine merchant in Plymouth (UBD 4.267); Eliza’s description of John’s business is echoed by an advertisement for “John Gould and Co. merchants, Plymouth,” which appeared in the Exeter Flying Post on 24 November 1808, announcing that a cargo of fruit had just arrived from Malaga and would be sold to the public at the London Inn, Plymouth, on 30 November. An obituary notice in the Exeter Flying Post, 7 December 1815, announced the death of a “Mr. John Gould, of Dartmouth, merchant.”  If this is Eliza’s brother, he would have been only 32 at the time; Charles Bishop of Bishop and Wheeler, King’s Counsel Proctor at 6 and 12 Godliman Street, Doctor’s Common, London (Holden’s [1799]: 60); Eliza’s other brother, Thomas Gould. He settled in Ottery St. Mary as a dealer and chapman, but was not very successful, declaring bankruptcy in March 1812.  Ironically, he was commanded to present himself, prepared to “make a full discovery and disclosure of his estate and effects,” at the same hotel in Exeter to which his father appeared in 1791.  See Exeter Flying Post, 12 March 1812; for an odd reason, Eliza signed with a "B" instead of an "E."