I have also been permitted by Mr. Alfred Morrison, of Fonthill House, to inspect his interesting collection of letters of and to Lord Nelson.

These letters, which were purchased by Mr. Morrison, in March, 1886, were the property of Mr. Finch Hatton, to whom they had descended from his grandfather, Robert Fulke Greville, brother of Charles Greville, the heir of Sir William Hamilton, to whom Emma Lyons was transferred by him. As might be expected they relate almost entirely to her connection with and desertion by Greville, and have been made of full use by Mr. John Paget in his article in Blackwood, in May, 1888, and by Mr. Cordy Jeffreson in his lately published volumes. This portion of Lady Hamilton's life does not come into my present

venture.

Of the works already in print forming materials for a life of Lord Nelson, the Biography by Clarke and McArthur and the invaluable collection of Despatches and letters compiled by the late Sir Harris Nicolas occupy the foremost place. In the former work we have the most interesting autobiography of Nelson up to the close of the Battle of the Nile. In the latter, nearly the whole of the contents of the thirty-seven volumes of Despatches and Letters of Nelson now in the Library of Viscount Bridport at Cricket St. Thomas have been laid under contribution by Sir Harris Nicolas.1

Another printed volume from which I have quoted is that by the late Honble. Captain Plunkett, giving a history of "The Last Great War," as told in the Letters

"Despatches and Letters of Vice-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson," edited by Sir H. Nicolas, 7 vols., 1844-45. "Life and Services of Lord Nelson," edited by Clarke and Dr. J. McArthur, 3 vols., 1840. Of these papers, a selection illustrating the professional life of Nelson has been made by Professor J. K. Laughton, Professor of Modern History in King's College, London, a valuable text-book for the naval cadet. London, 1886, I vol., Longmans.

of the then Captain Jurien de la Gravière, contributed by him to the Revue de Deux Mondes. In this able history of the great battles in which Nelson fought with the French and Spanish fleets, we have not only a most noble tribute to our hero, but very valuable information of the state of the French and Spanish navies during that bitter contest which practically closed at Trafalgar.1

The Diary of Miss Cornelia Knight, better known to us as the much respected companion of the Princess Charlotte, furnishes many anecdotes of Nelson, with whom she first became acquainted in the year of the battle of the Nile, and accompanied him and the Hamiltons on the journey through Germany on his return after the battle.2

Of the published letters of Lady Hamilton I take but little account, so disfigured are they in what would apparently be their most important sentences, by omissions and asterisks, and also rendered more doubtful by the fact that most of them evidently never came through the post, and that not a few bear no date. I have discussed the value of the most important of them as the occasion arose in the narrative.3

With Southey's ever popular narrative there is little fault to be found, writing as he did before the truth was known about the Carraciolo incident and the other points which made, according to the evidence of that day, against the character of Nelson. It is, however, to be much regretted that this otherwise charming Life has very lately

1 "The Last Naval War," being translations from the letters of Captain Jurien de la Gravière in the Revue Des Deux Mondes, by the Honble. Captain Plunkett, 2 vols., 1848, Longmans. These letters, six in number, entitled La Derniere Guere Maritime, appeared in the Revue from Nov. 1845 to 1847.

* "Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, with Extracts from her Diary," &c., 2 vols., 1861.

3 "Letters of Lady Hamilton to Lord Nelson," &c., 2 vols., London, 1814.