Nelson's Lady Hamilton (32 page)

Just before Nelson first came to Merton he wrote to Emma, begging that he might not be " annoyed " on his arrival with visitors and strangers; " it is retirement with my friends, that I wish for/ 7 That was a genuine expression of his wishes and feelings ; all his life he was well content with the dinner of herbs where love is— but not so Emma. In the simple old Edgware Row days, when one man's approval had made up the sum of her happiness, she had found content in small things ; but Italy and the atmosphere of a Court had spoiled her. She had grown to like a lavish show, an exuberant and expensive hospitality. Nelson had assured her, in the blindness of his heart, during the purchase

TO THE LAST BATTLE 819

and preparation of Merton, "You will make us rich with your economies." But economy and Emma—after her early days—were barely on speaking terms. Like most women, she enjoyed

'i planning and contriving something out of nothing,

;!and she was always ready to work with her hands; but any saving she effected thereby was erased by some lavish expenditure soon afterwards. At Merton, in Nelson's name, she kept a most liberal table, as the heavy weekly bills show, and she was not satisfied lest many guests

] graced the well-provided board. So expenses grew, and the quiet country home became as full of noise and society as any town house. Nelson yielded his wishes to hers without a murmur— apparently all was well so long as the " Lady Paramount" was happy.

But Sir William was not so well pleased. Old age had crept fast upon him; he began to feel that his days were numbered, and he wished to spend the few remaining to him in the ways and pursuits for which he most cared. "It is but reasonable," he wrote to his nephew, Charles

j Greville, in January, 1802, " after having fagged all my life, that my last days should pass off comfortably and quietly." The reasonableness of this desire Emma apparently could not see : she was so wrapped up in herself and in Nelson, she was so eminently satisfied with the large and easy way of living at Merton, that she ignored

her husband's growing dissatisfaction. At last Sir William was driven to put the case before her in writing, which he did with great restraint and kind feeling ; nevertheless, the document is illuminating, and it is particularly interesting as being practically the last time in which the old diplomatist emerges from the background to which he had been tacitly relegated by his wife and his " best friend "—

" I have passed the last 40 years of my life in the hurry and bustle that must necessarily be ! attendant on a publick character. I am arrived at the age when some repose is really necessary, and I promised myself a quiet home, and altho' I was sensible, and said so when I married, that I shou'd be superannuated when my wife wou'd be in her full beauty and vigour of youth. That time is arrived, and we must make the best of it for the comfort of both parties. Unfortunately our tastes as to the manner of living are very different. I by no means wish to live in solitary retreat, but to have seldom less than 12 or 14 at table, and those varying continually, is coming back to what was become so irksome to rne in Italy during the latter years of my residence in that country. I have no connections out of my own family. I have no complaint to make, but I feel that the whole attention of my wife is given to Lord N. and his interest at Merton. I well know the purity of Lord N.'s friendship for

TO THE LAST BATTLE 321

JEmma and me, and I know how very uncomfortable it wou'd make his Lp., our best friend, if a jseparation shou'd take place, and am therefore determined to do all in my power to prevent such an extremity, which wou'd be essentially detri-\mental to all parties, but wou'd be more sensibly felt by our dear friend than by us. Provided that our expences in housekeeping do not en-|:rease beyond measure (of which I must own I isee some danger), I am willing to go upon our (present footing; but as I cannot expect to live many years, every moment to me is precious, and jl hope I may be allow'd sometimes to be my own jmaster, and pass my time according to my own inclination, either by going my fishing parties on the Thames or by going to London to attend the JMuseum, R. Society, the Tuesday Club, and jAuctions of pictures. I mean to have a light lariot or post chaise by the month, that I may ike use of it in London and run backwards and rards to Merton or to Sheppertdn, etc. This my plan, and we might go on very well, but am fully determined not to have more of the silly altercations that happen but too often reen us and embitter the present moments :ceedingly. If realy one cannot live comfort->ly together, a wise and well concerted separation preferable; but I think, considering the pro-ibility of my not troubling any party long in tis world, the best for us all wou ; d be to bear

322 NELSON'S LADY HAMILTON

those ills we have rather than flie to those we know not of. I have fairly stated what I have on my mind. There is no time for nonsense or trifling. I know and admire your talents and many excellent qualities, but I am not blind to your defects, and confess having many myself; therefore let us bear and forbear for God's sake/'

A sensitive woman would have been arrest by the kindly moderation of this statement. But though "sensibility"—in the eighteenth-century use of the word—was one of Emma Hamilton's most marked characteristics, sensitiveness was not. It seems probable, from subsequent doings at Merton, that Sir William's protest was little heeded. Some idea of the mode of life there may be gathered from the account of a visit paid by Lord Minto about this time. " The whole establishment and way of life are such as to make me angry, as well as melancholy," he told his wife; " but I cannot alter it, and I do not think myself obliged, or at liberty, to quarrel with him for his weakness, though nothing shall evei induce me to give the smallest countenance tc Lady Hamilton." He was convinced that Emmc looked ultimately to surviving the two " impediments" (it is Nelson's own ruthless word) to hej marriage with the admiral. Minto admitted tha she was " in high looks, but more immense thai ever. The love she makes to Nelson is not onl 1

TO THE LAST BATTLE 323

ridiculous, but disgusting: not only the rooms, but the whole house, staircase and all, are covered with nothing but pictures of her and him, of all sizes and sorts, and representations of his naval actions, coats-of-arms, pieces of plate in his honour, the flag-staff of L!Orient, etc.—an excess of vanity which counteracts its own purpose. If it was Lady Hamilton's house there might be a pretence for it; to make his own house a mere looking-glass to view himself all day is bad taste."

Lord Minto ignores, or is ignorant of, the fact that practically it was Lady Hamilton's own house. She had furnished and arranged it; she had made it speak Nelson on every wall. How much all this was Emma's doing and how little the admiral's may be gathered from an account of Nelson in private life, written by one of his nephews:—

" Lord Nelson in private life was remarkable >r a demeanour quiet, sedate, and unobtrusive, ixious to give pleasure to every one about him, listinguishing each in turn by some act of kind-Less, and chiefly those who seemed to require it lost. During his few intervals of leisure, in a itle knot of relations and friends, he delighted quiet conversation, through which occasionally in an undercurrent of pleasantry, not unmixed with caustic wit. At his table he was least heard among the company, and so far from being the

hero of his own tale, I never heard him voluntarily refer to any of the great actions of his life."

But though the admiral might be silent, there was little chance of his actions being forgotten while Emma was present. She still shone as " Patroness of the Navy " to the younger officers of the Service. Lieutenant Parsons relates how she helped him to his Commission after the Peace of Amiens, when he found himself stranded on half-pay, with no chance of promotion. As a last resource he went to Merton. When he arrived there he found Nelson in an irritable humour, declaring that he was " pestered to death by young gentlemen, his former shipmates." This was disconcerting, but Tom Allen, Nelson's old sailor-servant, "went in search of an able auxiliary, who entered the study, in the most pleasing shape—that of a lovely and graceful woman ; and, with her usual fascinating and playful manner, declared, 'His Lordship must serve me/ His countenance, which, until now, had been a thundercloud, brightened; and Lady Hamilton was the sun that lightened our hemisphere. She, with that ready wit possessed by the fair sex alone, set aside his scruples of asking a favour of the first Admiralty Lord, by dictating a strong certificate, which, under her direction, he wrote, * Now, my young friend/ said her ladyship, with that irresistible smile which gave such expression oi sweetness to her lovely countenance, 'obey m)

TO THE LAST BATTLE 325

directions minutely; send this to Lord St. Vincent, at Brentwood, so as to reach him on Sunday morning.' My commission as an officer was dated the same as the aforesaid certificate. May it be made up to thee in another and better world, sweet lady!" exclaims the grateful lieutenant, " for man's injustice in this—where thou hast been most foully calumniated—and thy sins and weaknesses attributed to their proper source: thy low birth and association of thy infant years, joined to the most extraordinary talent and beauty that ever adorned thy sex."

In the summer of this year the Hamiltons and Nelson and Charles Greville set out for a driving tour to Sir William's estates at Milford, which Greville had been managing for his uncle. Owing perhaps to seeing Milford Haven in company with Lady Hamilton, Nelson was struck with its suitability for a dockyard, and through his influence at the Admiralty one was established there on land belonging to the Hamiltons. Some years later the dockyard establishment was transferred to Pembroke. The tour turned out a triumphal progress for the admiral: in every town and hamlet he passed through, his countrymen came out to welcome and rejoice over him. There might be coldness and caution in high quarters, notably at Blenheim, which they visited, but the hearts of the people were warm. Emma herself partook in all the glory and all the plaudits;

and when she got back to Merton, exhausted with her exertions, but triumphant, she wrote exultantly, "We have had a most charming Tour which will Burst some of THEM.'* An explosive comment which is typical Emma!

The time was now drawing on when Emma's rightful protector was to leave her. Sir William's health had been slowly failing, and in the early spring of 1803 it was evident that he was very near his end. His wife and Nelson were constantly with him, caring for his last hours with a tenderness that would be strange in view of the facts, were human nature itself not capable of such strange complexities. Nelson had referred to Sir William as Emma's " uncle," and openly speculated upon his death. Emma had played the traitor to her husband and hidden the consequence without an apparent pang of compunction. Yet on the day he died she wrote, " Unhappy day for the forlorn Emma. Ten minutes past ten dear blessed Sir William left me." While Nelson said, "Our dear Sir William died at 10 minutes past Ten this morning in Lady Hamilton's and my arms without a sigh or a struggle. Poor Lady H. is as you may expect desolate."

In all the curious drama of Emma's life there is surely no episode so inexplicable as this of Sir William dying in the arms of his weeping and faithless wife, while Nelson soothed his last moments. Whether Sir William Hamilton

LADY HAMILTON AS A NUN

GEORGE RO.MNEY

TO THE LAST BATTLE 327

suspected anything of the truth must remain a mystery. It seems impossible to believe that he, very much a man of the world and not ignorant of his wife's upbringing, should have been so blind to a situation at which many people were broadly hinting. Yet never by word or sign did he display the least doubt of either his friend or his wife, and in his will he left a miniature of Emma to Nelson: " The copy of Madame Le Brunn's picture of Emma in enamel by Bone, I give to my dearest friend Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, a very small token of the great regard I have for his lordship, the most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character I ever met with. God bless him, and shame fall on all those who do not say Amen."

The conduct of all the three is best characterized by Mr. A. C. Swinburne's saying of Mary Stuart: " That there are fewer moral impossibilities than would readily be granted by the professional moralist, those students of human character who are not professional moralists may very readily admit."

Captain Hardy's comment on the affair was somewhat curt: " Sir William Hamilton died on Sunday afternoon, and was quite sensible to the last. How her Ladyship will manage to Live with the Hero of the Nile now, I am at a loss to know, at least in an honourable way."

Part of this problem was temporarily solved

by the outbreak of war with France, when Nelson was given the command of the Mediterranean, for " Buonaparte knows that if he hoists his flag it will not be in joke." Nelson's views on the renewal of the war are shown in the noble words he used in the House of Lords the previous winter. " I, my Lords, have in different countries, seen much of the miseries of war/' said the great admiral; " I am, therefore, in my inmost soul, a man of peace. Yet I would not, for the sake of any peace, however fortunate, consent to sacrifice one jot of England's honour. Our honour is inseparably combined with our genuine interest. Hitherto there has been nothing greater known on the Continent than the faith, the untainted honour, the generous public sympathies, the high diplomatic influence, the commerce, the grandeur, the resistless power, the unconquerable valour of the British nation."