MEMORIES OF NELSON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19496, 27 November 1926, Page 11

MEMORIES OF NELSON.

A TRAFALGAR DAY DINNER.

TRADITIONS OF THE NAVY. [from our own correspondent.] LONDON. Oct. 23. In the absence of the Marquis of Linlithgow, Sir Cyril S Cobb, M.P., chairman of the Executive Committee, presided at the annual Navy League dinner on October 21. For this occasion the Worshipful Company of Grocers generously placed at the league's disposal their beautiful hall in the city Here was displayed the company's wonderful gold plate, below which was placed a portrait of Lord Nelson, surmounted with ' a wreath of laurel. Round the room were arranged the flags that formed the famous signal, and immediately over the chair was the Red Ensign peppered with bullet holes. Lord Lee, of Fareham, in proposing "The glorious and immortal memory of Nelson and his comra-des," said the Navy League had assembled to honour Nelson, and surely there was enough glory in his life and in his death to monopolise their thoughts—at any rate, for one evening. It was impossible to appraise the greatness of Nelson an<3 his achievements unless one realised and gave full effect to the handicaps under which he suffered throughout his career; the physical weak' ness amounting almost to frailty, the con stant misery of body through sea-sickness, neuralgia, and indigestion, and the torture of old arid misdressed wounds; and perhaps even that hyper-sensitiveness of a temperament which was far more Latin than British, and which so often led him, as the writers told them, into extravagance of conduct or of speech. . The speaker recalled the story of l;he only meeting that ever took place between Nelson and Wellington at the Colonial Office, and, after quoting the words in which the latter described Nelson, said:—"And, lastly, I will qnolo my own grandfather, who had served with Nelson both at St. Vincent and at the Nile and who had been introduced ov him to Lady Hamilton He described Nelson's appearance in 1805 as he walked with him down the Strand, only a few months before Trafalgar. He was then very ill and neither in look nor dress betokened the naval hero, having on a pair of drab green breeches high black palters, a yellow waistcoat, a plain blue :oat, a cocked hat quite square, with a large green shade over his eyes, and a goldheaded stick in his hand, and as he walked along, with his eyes on the ground, the crowd which followed shouted, 'He is thinking of burning a fleet.' "

This then, said Lord Lee. was the out-ward-man as seen bv his contemporaries, hut how little did this oddity of appearance conceal the fire of the son! within or the genius and valour which inspired the whole Nayy and had been the foundation of its noblest traditions ever since, and still the traditions lived Bv the greatness of his example, and the deathless memory of his achievements. Nelson stood above us as did his statue above the grime and clatter of our hurrying lib' beneath. (Cheers.) Still the tradition of Nelson's Navy lived. Nothing would have delighted Ncl son more, continued Lord Lee, than the British attack on Zeebrnerge. Nothing would have been more after his heart than the dash across the Atlantic to Jv Valklands. and the hnntinsr down of Von Snee's fleet, and he wnnld have been emiaHv in his element a f / w t . wwk * on the Van gate. Each n these recent exploits showed the authentic Nelson Wh, and the men who tookpartin fh P m were proud to beloncr to this hand nf brothers. Ever since Nelson s dav thank' to his inspiration, the British V has always been composed of such material As Nelson said to Lord Barham on one occasion: "Choose yourself, my Lord. The same spirit, animates the whole profession. You cannot choose wrong."