Eliza Flower at the Gurneys and later the Creaks, London, to Benjamin Flower at Harlow, undated [Thursday, 8 May 1806].

                                                                     Walworth Thursday

My dear Benjamin

   I came hither last evening after taking an early cup of tea in Cornhill & wonderful to tell I walked all the way without being at all tired.  I slept at Mr Hemmings, have breakfasted this morning at Mr Gurneys & am now waiting for the 10 oclock stage—I called at Conders soon after my arrival found him very ill & the Apothecary sent for—he will thank you to provide for the bill about which you wrote.  Miss Fuller is in Hertfordshire not expected in Town till the middle of next week so I shall write to Ponders End[2] this even’gsaying that I shall be there on Saturday& if she is not there I can leave my millenary & meet you as conveniently as at Woodford.[3] Mrs Creak will go with me this morning to no 12 Gracechurch Street[4]& after that I shall to[o] on your friends—I will call in Cannon St & say when you will be in Town.

   Lord Melvilles Trial[5] will finish next week & our Friends all say what a pity we do not go—I should very much like it.  Tickets are scarce & you should be early in your application.  Mrs J Gurney went yesterday with Lord Stanhopes[6] Tickets but she had to wait several days.  I wish if you mean to go you would write to Lord King[7]—& I would take a ride with you to town next week say Tuesday or Wednesday could sleep here & go with Mr Gurney in his coach & his Hair dresser would dress me without my having any difficulty & we could return home the next day.

Cornhill—

   I have called at Harris’s[8] for a catalogue.  Mr Creak says if we go we shall bring away more than we carry that is of live stock.  I intend to call in Cannon street.  If you mean to go to Melvilles Trial pray make all the interest you can for Tickets but Mr Creak tells me that they are very difficult indeed to be met with had you not better write also to Lord Henry Petty.[9] Lord Melville will come off they think with flying colours Trotter[10] for whom an act of indemnity is passed having taken every thing upon himself—but I should much like to go if you can contrive it & I am sure you will if you can.

   I thank you for your kind & most affectionate letter—& am ashamed to send you such a scrawl in return but if your affection does not blind you to treat them with tenderness. I hope Eliza & Sarah continue well & that Bet will not clad them to[o] warmly.

I will give you a kiss extraordinary if you will not scold me for this “scrambling letter.”  Miss Hosegood[11] is so ill that she must go into Devonshire directly she goes next week.

[The lower portion of the last page has been cut off.]

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. 317-19 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

Lord Melville’s trial began on 29 April 1806 and ran for the next fifteen days. For more on Henry Dundas, Lord Melville (1742-1811), click here; Charles, Earl Stanhope (1753-1816), entered Parliament in 1780 and supported the Whig coalition in their opposition to the war with America as well as those who later opposed the war with France; Peter King was seventh Lord King, Baron of Ockham, Surrey (1776-1833). In May 1804, he married Lady Hester Fortescue, daughter of Hugh, first Earl Fortescue, the same Fortescue of Castle Hill, Devon, who failed to intervene on Eliza’s behalf during her politic­al difficulties in South Molton in 1794-95; John Harris was a London bookseller at 21 Ludgate Street, 1802-43 (Nichols 8.482); John Henry Petty was the son of William Petty, the Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805); Alexander Trotter served as paymaster of the Navy under Melville from 1786-1800, during which time he was involved in some of Melville's mismanagement of government funds; and Jane Hosegood, who joined the Baptist congregation at Tiverton on 5 November 1801, the same congregation where Eliza’s relations, Joseph and Mary Gould, as well as her aunt, Elizabeth Hayne, worshiped.