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Details
HORATIO, VISCOUNT NELSON (1758-1805)
Autograph letter signed ('Ever yours for Ever Nelson & Bronte') to Lady Hamilton ('My Dearest friend'), n.p. [St George], 'March 1st 1801, 8 o'clock morn[ing]', 3 pages, 4to, integral address panel to Lady Hamilton at 23 Piccadilly, signed ('Nelson') and dated ('Portsmouth March first 1801'), red wax seal (cracked) depicting Lady Hamilton's profile (seal tear in outer edge), tipped on to a leaf from an album.
Provenance: Alfred Morrison Collection, II, no. 530; Christie's sale of the Edwin Wolff 2nd Collection, 20 June 1990 (lot 224)
'KISS MY GODCHILD FOR ME & BLESS IT'. A LOVE LETTER WRITTEN AFTER NELSON HAD VISITED LONDON AND SEEN HIS DAUGHTER HORATIA FOR THE FIRST TIME. In the first of three letters addressed to Emma on the same day, Nelson gives touching reassurances of his devotion, intending to write at every opportunity, responding to her own letters, and referring explicitly to their next meeting.
'I send this line ... that no little ruffle may take place in your dear good and exalted mind ... I have read over twenty times your dear kind letters, and although I must naturally be happy that your affection is such as you describe and so exactly a counterpart of my own feelings, yet I must beg that my friend will not be sick or grieve too much for a temporary but unavoidable absence of a few weeks, and if we were both differently circumstanced that should not be, no not for an hour ... Tell Mrs Thomson that her friend is more in love with her than ever, and I believe dreams of her, he is sorry that she was a little unwell when he was in London as it deprived him of much pleasure but he is determined to have full scope when he next sees her'.
In the weeks since Horatia's birth at the beginning of January Nelson had been consumed with anger at what he perceived as Sir William's plans to bring about a liaison between Emma and the Prince Regent ('that fellow'). Although reassured by his three day visit to London he now discusses a proposed visit to the Hamiltons by his brother, the Reverend William Nelson and his wife, the latter perhaps as chaperone for Emma, 'Say that I will pay their lodgings, and then you can have as much of her company as you please; but Reverend Sir you will find a great bore at times, therefore he ought to amuse himself all the mornings and not always to dine with you as Sir William may not like it. They can twice or three times a week have a beef stake [sic] at home, for some people may say by & bye that Sir W maintains the family of the Nelsons which would irk me'.
The 'Thomson' letters were a subterfuge to conceal Horatia's parentage. Nelson conveyed to Emma the messages of 'Thomson', a fictitious member of his crew, to 'Mrs Thomson', his wife, apparently living under Emma's protection. In this way all remarks and enquiries about the infant, described by Nelson as his godchild, could be attributed to her supposed parents. The difficulty of maintaining this disguise shows in frequent inconsistencies and slips of the pen in the 'Thomson' letters. Later, after Nelson's notional adoption of her, Horatia was referred to as 'Horatia Nelson Thomson'.
Autograph letter signed ('Ever yours for Ever Nelson & Bronte') to Lady Hamilton ('My Dearest friend'), n.p. [St George], 'March 1st 1801, 8 o'clock morn[ing]', 3 pages, 4to, integral address panel to Lady Hamilton at 23 Piccadilly, signed ('Nelson') and dated ('Portsmouth March first 1801'), red wax seal (cracked) depicting Lady Hamilton's profile (seal tear in outer edge), tipped on to a leaf from an album.
Provenance: Alfred Morrison Collection, II, no. 530; Christie's sale of the Edwin Wolff 2nd Collection, 20 June 1990 (lot 224)
'KISS MY GODCHILD FOR ME & BLESS IT'. A LOVE LETTER WRITTEN AFTER NELSON HAD VISITED LONDON AND SEEN HIS DAUGHTER HORATIA FOR THE FIRST TIME. In the first of three letters addressed to Emma on the same day, Nelson gives touching reassurances of his devotion, intending to write at every opportunity, responding to her own letters, and referring explicitly to their next meeting.
'I send this line ... that no little ruffle may take place in your dear good and exalted mind ... I have read over twenty times your dear kind letters, and although I must naturally be happy that your affection is such as you describe and so exactly a counterpart of my own feelings, yet I must beg that my friend will not be sick or grieve too much for a temporary but unavoidable absence of a few weeks, and if we were both differently circumstanced that should not be, no not for an hour ... Tell Mrs Thomson that her friend is more in love with her than ever, and I believe dreams of her, he is sorry that she was a little unwell when he was in London as it deprived him of much pleasure but he is determined to have full scope when he next sees her'.
In the weeks since Horatia's birth at the beginning of January Nelson had been consumed with anger at what he perceived as Sir William's plans to bring about a liaison between Emma and the Prince Regent ('that fellow'). Although reassured by his three day visit to London he now discusses a proposed visit to the Hamiltons by his brother, the Reverend William Nelson and his wife, the latter perhaps as chaperone for Emma, 'Say that I will pay their lodgings, and then you can have as much of her company as you please; but Reverend Sir you will find a great bore at times, therefore he ought to amuse himself all the mornings and not always to dine with you as Sir William may not like it. They can twice or three times a week have a beef stake [sic] at home, for some people may say by & bye that Sir W maintains the family of the Nelsons which would irk me'.
The 'Thomson' letters were a subterfuge to conceal Horatia's parentage. Nelson conveyed to Emma the messages of 'Thomson', a fictitious member of his crew, to 'Mrs Thomson', his wife, apparently living under Emma's protection. In this way all remarks and enquiries about the infant, described by Nelson as his godchild, could be attributed to her supposed parents. The difficulty of maintaining this disguise shows in frequent inconsistencies and slips of the pen in the 'Thomson' letters. Later, after Nelson's notional adoption of her, Horatia was referred to as 'Horatia Nelson Thomson'.
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