LORD NELSON’S MARK

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 3

LORD NELSON’S MARK

RELIC IN PORTSMOUTH INN. Thousands of people were visiting Portsmouth a few weeks ago to see the French squadron, and the dockyard, Dickens’ birthplace, and other show places, but few of them know that in one of the old inns of the old town there remains a fascinating Nelson relic. There is, near the Point, an inn dating back to 1556, enjoying the historic name of the Star and Garter. It has a cosy little snuggery with a window looking out on Broad Street, and on this window many generations of seafaring men have scratched their names —in most cases the nicknames they bore at the time. High up in the right-hand corner of the bottom half of the window is Lord Nelson’s monogram “H.N.” and close above it the single name, “Horatio.” Many of the other names are of the “Jacko” and “Pirate” variety, but there is one drawing, diamond-etched on the glass. It is a balloon and parachute, and was made by Ferguson, the first Englishman to drop to earth in a parachute. Lord Charles Beresford, in his young days, was one of the famous naval men who frequented the Star and Garter, and it is known that he scratched his nickname there although it has never been identified. The inn itself has fallen from its high estate, and thirty of its rooms are never used. It runs, at the back, directly on the Camber, and during spring-tides the sea laps over its stone-flagged passages. Sally Port, where Nelson embarked for the last time, is quite near, and a couple of hundred yards farther on is the George, where he spent his last few hours in England. The house where the Duke of Buckingham was killed in 1628 by John Felton is adjacent, and not far away stands the house where George Meredith was born.