Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Three autograph letters (one signed, ‘Nelson & Bronte’) to his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton, HMS Victory at sea, 20 May 1803, 10-11 June 1803 and 17-18 June 1804
Details
Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Three autograph letters (one signed, ‘Nelson & Bronte’) to his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton, HMS Victory at sea, 20 May 1803, 10-11 June 1803 and 17-18 June 1804
‘My heart is full to bursting’: Nelson caught between duty and love. The letters are written during the long separation – more than two years – endured by Nelson and Emma during the campaign preceding the Battle of Trafalgar. The first, written on the day Nelson left Portsmouth on board HMS Victory, shows his agitation at the knowledge that he and Emma no longer ‘tread the same element’ now that he is at sea, leaving her on land. The second includes a poignant attempt to reassure her that her financial situation would be secure even after his death, something that was to be bitterly disproved by events. The third, after a year at sea, reflects his weariness, expressing hopes for peace and referring to ‘my maimed Carcass’ (Nelson had lost both an arm and the sight in one eye in the service of his country) and touchingly expresses his delight at having recovered a portrait of Emma which had been intercepted by the French.
Nelson’s relationship with Emma was always potentially the subject of scandal, not least because they had an unacknowledged daughter, Horatia, whom they pretended was simply a godchild. The letters reflect Nelson’s concerns about his letters being intercepted and exploited – in the second and third letters, sent by the public post, he deliberately leaves them unsigned, and in one of them goes through the pretence of referring to himself as if he were another person (‘The Admiral’, or ‘Lord Nelson’). The first letter, which evidently went by a trusted courier, is less guarded, but even here a subsequent hand has intervened with clumsy attempts to conceal references to ‘our dear child’ (Horatia) – reflecting the continued sensitivity around their relationship even after their deaths.
Three autograph letters (one signed, ‘Nelson & Bronte’) to his lover Emma, Lady Hamilton, HMS Victory at sea, 20 May 1803, 10-11 June 1803 and 17-18 June 1804
‘My heart is full to bursting’: Nelson caught between duty and love. The letters are written during the long separation – more than two years – endured by Nelson and Emma during the campaign preceding the Battle of Trafalgar. The first, written on the day Nelson left Portsmouth on board HMS Victory, shows his agitation at the knowledge that he and Emma no longer ‘tread the same element’ now that he is at sea, leaving her on land. The second includes a poignant attempt to reassure her that her financial situation would be secure even after his death, something that was to be bitterly disproved by events. The third, after a year at sea, reflects his weariness, expressing hopes for peace and referring to ‘my maimed Carcass’ (Nelson had lost both an arm and the sight in one eye in the service of his country) and touchingly expresses his delight at having recovered a portrait of Emma which had been intercepted by the French.
Nelson’s relationship with Emma was always potentially the subject of scandal, not least because they had an unacknowledged daughter, Horatia, whom they pretended was simply a godchild. The letters reflect Nelson’s concerns about his letters being intercepted and exploited – in the second and third letters, sent by the public post, he deliberately leaves them unsigned, and in one of them goes through the pretence of referring to himself as if he were another person (‘The Admiral’, or ‘Lord Nelson’). The first letter, which evidently went by a trusted courier, is less guarded, but even here a subsequent hand has intervened with clumsy attempts to conceal references to ‘our dear child’ (Horatia) – reflecting the continued sensitivity around their relationship even after their deaths.
Provenance
Emma, Lady Hamilton, amongst some 300 letters sold by her to: – Alderman Joshua Smith (who offered Emma considerable financial support in her last years, including paying for her funeral); probably acquired from Smith’s widow by – Thomas Pettigrew (1791-1865, author of Memoirs of the life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, 1849, which included many letters); not among the letters acquired by Alfred Morrison in 1887; Sotheby's New York, 24 May 1977, lot 263.
Literature
Pettigrew. Memoirs (1849), ii, nos 397-8.
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Thomas Venning
Head of Department, Books and Manuscripts