MEMENTOES OF NELSON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20620, 19 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

MEMENTOES OF NELSON.

DRUGS FROM TRAFALGAR. LOCK OF HAIR IN CHEST. GIFT TO LADY HAMILTON. A medicine chest which is stated to have *een service in the Victory during the battle of Trafalgar and to contain a lock cf Nelson's hair, came to light last mpnth in the old-world surroundings of Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, London. Drugs from the chest may have helped to relieve Nelson's dying- agony. The bottles still contain medicines. American collectors have already been offering large Knms of money for tho relics, but the owner has so far resisted the temptation to part with them. The lock of hair is silvery grey, and as fine and silky as the hair of a woman. A scrap of paper which •nclosed it bears the following inscription in ink yellow with age:— "The hair from Lord Nelson's head cut off immediately after he was killed, by order of the captain. I believe Captnin Truehridge. Sent to Lady Hamilton, who gave the enclosed to me.— J- Doret." A Daily Express representative compared the lock with hair which is proved to be that, of Nelson in a locket at the United Service;; Museum in Whitehall. [Tho two tallied exactly in texture and folonr. Nelson, as he lay dying :-aid : "• Well, Hardy, how goes the day with us? . J am a dead man, Hardy. . . ..Let my dear Lady Hamilton have my hair. , . Jake caro of poor Ladv Hamilton. . . Tho owner of tho chest, Miss D. L. Cantle, of Princeton Mansions, Red Lion Square, said:—" The chest is undoubtedly the one use 1 by Nelson's doctors at the battle of Trafalgar. It was bequeathed to mo many ago by my old schoolmist res?, who wi; a. daughter of Sir John Doret, M.D. She often told me that Dr. IBeatty, t).«- surgeon of tho Victory, gave the che.-t to ta'her, who was Beatty'3 friend. Hie beau'i";,! Lady Hamilton, who was so tragically associated with Lord Nelson, g;tv(! Sir John tho lock of Nelsons hair to keep in the chest. Sir John lived to the aire r.f 02, and died in J 363. ili>: rhe-t j ~f nu.h'.gany, with iiinken bras: |,.,t|,}|, . 1 jn ;( |j excellent state "f prescrviii i'.ii 'J he f<>|> drawer contains 34 bottle-, many Mil bearing their a>l- - label with the, superscriptiou of a. n'ov.n, "hi- h -ho v.:■ that they were Gov* ernmem . •••.. . Jhe lov.er drawn rr.n'ains f r, ur smaller bottle?, miniature pestle and mortar, fpotiiecm-y'j weights, and small pillboxes, variously labelled pills and blistering plaster. Colonel Hughes, tho curator of the United Services Museum, regards tho medicine chest and its contents as a discovery of tho first importance. If thero is no doubt about the authenticity of these relics, their place should be in the Whitehall Museum or in tho Victory,-at Portsmouth," he said. "We have no toedicine chest from the Victory in our Section here."-