Eliza Flower [in Devon] to Benjamin Flower at Harlow, early July 1806 (incomplete).

… soon a consolatory letter he[2] says he hopes he has acted to your satisfaction & that he has given you no cause to reflect on him dont take any notice to him of this observation but write him immediately.  I am much better than I was my spirits are getting into tune again—shall set off for Totness to morrow sleep at Mr Windeatts[3]& get to Dodbrook on Tuesday will write you my love on Wednesday.  How are my babes & how are you & how is Sophy[4] she must not leave you till you have another Handmaid  we mean to be at Plymouth in the course of ten days to return from thence to Tiverton then to Ottery & home Oh dear Home never more will I quit you nor Husband nor Children for so long a time I promise & vow—kiss my cherubs for me.  I cannot see to read my letter or to stop it  you must my love take it as it [is] & be thankful & make the best of it—adieu 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. 321-22 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

The above letter was composed during Eliza’s visit to Devon and Plymouth, sometime after the birth of Sarah in 1805. References above include Eliza’s brother, John; Thomas White Windeatt, who preached his first sermon in the Totness church in July 1803; and Sophia Creak, who, like Elizabeth Gurney had previously done, was assisting Benjamin in the care of his two daughters during his wife’s absence.