Nelson's Lady Hamilton by Meynell, Esther (surface ebook reader txt) 📕

the acting, the dancing, and the singing. Lady Hamilton's maid began to scold in French about some provisions which had been forgot, . . . Lady Hamilton began bawling for an Irish stew, and her old mother set about washing the potatoes, which she did as cleverly as possible. They were exactly like Hogarth's actresses dressing in the barn. In the evening I went to congratulate the Elliots on their deliverance, and found them very sensible of it."

It is not entirely certain that the immaculate Mr. Elliot and Mrs. St. George come out best in this encounter. Manners are much, but they are not everything. Perhaps Mrs. Cadogan peeling her potatoes was no more vulgar than Mrs. St. George in thinking her an object of scorn. Emma was certainly capable of " bawling,' 1 but then she was also capable of acting in a time of danger with true heroic grit. Had Mrs. St. George chosen to censure the moral wrong of which Nelson and Lady Hamilton were guilty, the outrage to the feelings of the silent wife waiting in England while they paraded the Continent, there could have been nothing but agreement with her condemnation. But it was

external things she criticized: the defects of manner and taste of a great and worn-out seaman, who was childishly vain and very slow to think that people could be judging him unkindly, and of a woman whose heart was on all occasions better than her breeding.

CHAPTER XIII ENGLAND AGAIN

EVERY seaport in England would have rejoiced to be the first to greet the returning Hero of the Nile. But the honour fell to Yarmouth, in Nelson's native county of Norfolk, and on the 6th of November, 1800, he landed there, accompanied by his inseparable companions, Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Yarmouth received the greatest admiral who had ever stepped upon English soil with hearty seafaring enthusiasm. The quaint old seaport blossomed into bunting, the ships in the harbour hoisted their colours, guns fired, infantry paraded, Nelson's carriage was unhorsed, and his shouting countrymen drew him in triumph to the Wrestler's Inn, which was his first shelter under an English roof for nearly three years. The Mayor and Corporation waited upon him in solemn state, in order to present him with the freedom of the town—an idle ceremony, after all, for thenceforward Nelson held, as by royal right, the freedom of every true English heart. If he ever met with slights and coldness

after the Nile it was from those in high places, who were stamped with the curious official fear of recognizing a hero before he is safely dead. But the people of Yarmouth had no such caution : they rejoiced to have Nelson among them warm and living, and when on the day of his arrival he went to a thanksgiving service, they went to church with him, as did all the naval officers on shore, and the Mayor and Corporation.

Emma Hamilton shared in all these triumphs. When he landed she walked down the little wooden jetty with her hand on Nelson's arm; when he addressed the people from the balcony of the Wrestler's Inn, she stood by his side before the eyes of the assembled townsfolk; when he went in procession to the church, she was with him. But the Yarmouth folk looked kindly on a handsome face, and in any case they were not inclined to criticize their glorious admiral. It is believed that on this occasion Lady Hamilton wore the dress which had been designed for the Palermo f&te of a year ago—a dress of white muslin, with a flounce embroidered in gold thread and coloured silks, with anchors and leaves, with medallions containing the words " Nelson" and " Bronte " alternating on the border. A piece of this flounce was to be seen in the Loan Collection of the Museum of the United Service Institute in the Centenary Year of Trafalgar.

Yarmouth could not pay enough honour to

LADY HAMILTON AS "THE COMIC MUSE"

ANGELICAKAUKFMAN

the hero and his party : " On leaving the Town/' says the Naval Chronicle, " the corps of cavalry unexpectedly drew up, saluted, and followed the carriage, not only to the Town's end, but to the boundary of the County."

And so Nelson set out for London, with Emma at his side, to meet the wife he had not seen since the days when there had been no shadow between them, when rumour, flaunting another woman's name, had not set foot upon the threshold of their household peace. Lady Nelson has been unjustly blamed for not having met her husband at Yarmouth on his landing. But it appears that in awaiting him in London, with his aged father, she was obeying his express wish. She had been expecting his return for several months, in uncertainty as to when and where he would land—for Nelson at first talked of Portsmouth. Captain Hardy, too, was anxiously awaiting the admiral's return, and in one of his newly discovered letters (published for the first time by Mr. John Murray, in 1906), he says—

" Notwithstanding all the Newspapers, his Lordship is not arrived in town, and when he will God only knows. His Father has lost all patience, her Ladyship bears up very well as yet but I much fear she also will soon despond. He certainly arrived at Yarmouth on Thursday last and there has been no letter received by anybody. Should he not arrive to-morrow I think I

shall set off for Yarmouth as I know too well the cause of his not coming"

Alexander Davison, earlier than this, had been desired by Nelson to inform his wife of his impending return to England, and in making the announcement Davison added, " I fancy