NELSON RELICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1938, Page 9

NELSON RELICS

EXHIBITION AT GREENWICH ANNIVERSARY OCCASION. The trustees of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, following the precedent established last ..year, are to provide on the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar a special display of some of their recently-acquir-ed Nelson relics not hitherto shown to the public, said “The Times” on October 20. The exhibits will be arranged in the small vestibule of the Nelson room, overflowing into the room itself.

■Of many interesting relics, that of perhaps the greatest interest is Nelson’s will. This was dated May 10. 1803, and was executed in duplicate. The copy which was pro 'ed in Ergland is, of course, among the archives of Somerset House; but the copy which is to be on view at Greenwich is that which was executed for the purpose of disposing of his Sicilian estates at Bronte. It is shown open at page 2, on which is to be read Nelson's provision that his estate should be realised and applied to the provision of an annuity of £l,OOO to Lady Nelson, a provision which was confirmed by the later codicils which he executed. The will has been lent to the museum by Lord Bndport, the present holder of ihe Bronte title and estates, of which it presumably forms one of the title deeds. Three codicils, drafted in Nelson’s own hanwriting, are also to be on view.

Next in interest perhaps is the collection of Lady Hamilton’s letters, including that describing the rescue ,of the Neapolitan Royal Family and their conveyance to Sicily by Nelson. It also contains one of her early letters to Greville, written at great length soon after her arrival in Naples, a glance at which may well cause some vis'tors to revise the impression of her illiteracy derived from the description of some of her biographers. There is also a selection of Nelson's own letters, written both before and after the loss of his right arm, illustrating various phases of his career. Those interested in calligraphy may remark on the much more decided impression of character conveyed by his later left-handed writing than by Ihe earlier spec'mens written with the right hand. Other letters on view include several to Lady Hamilton from Nelson’s relatives and friends, many of whom were on intimate terms with her, as is illustrated by the frequent appearance of Nelson’s niece Charlotte in the collection of sketches of Merton —where Nelson lived with the Hamiltons in Surrey—by Thomas Baxter, to be seen in an adjoining case. An attractive exhibit is the six pictures, just acquired by the museum, specially painted by Nicholas Pocock between 1806 and 1808. so that they might be engraved as illustrations for the memorial “Life of Nelson,” by Clarke and McArthur. One of them shews five of Nelson’s ships of the line; the subjects of the remainder are the Battles of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar—beginning and end —and the episode at the Battle of Cape St Vincent when Nelson in the Captain carried by boarding first the two-decker San Nicolas, and then, across her, the three-decker San Josef —“Nelson patent bridge for boarding first-rates.” Relics of >the Battle of Trafalgar itself comprise specimens of the Trafalgar medal —in gold for flag officers and captains, silver for lieutenants, bronze for warrant officers, and pewter for midshipmen, petty officers, and men; a captain’s full-dress uniform of Ihe period which once belonged to Nelson’s nephew, Sir William Bolton; and the journals of Captain Rotherham, Collingwood’s flag captain. Of naivigational interest are a newlydiscovered chdrt showing the anchorage at Maddalena Island, off Sardinia, used by Nelson during his two years’ blockade of Toulon; a set of Mediterranean charts, of French production, used by Thomas Atkinson, Master, end bearing his workings of the Victory’s movements before the Trafalgar campaign. The more intimate personal relics of Nelson include some of his visiting cards, with the copper plate from which they were printed, two pairs of his gloves, and the log of H.M.S.‘Bristol kept by him as a young lieutenant in 1778.