Nelson's Priendslcips. By Mrs. Hilda Gamlin. 2 vols. With 60
Illustrations. (Hutchinson and Co. 28s.)—This book professes to be a record of Nelson's friendships, which were many and honour. able ; it is really an account of his relations with Lady Hamilton, which were, to say the least of it, disastrous. There are, indeed, a few interesting facts stowed away in the last chapter which tell us of the fates that befel some of Nelson's humbler allies. Thomas Carter, his favourite boatswain, was paid off at Portsmouth in 1815 after the peace. " He hired two postchaises, and treated some of his friends to a ride with him to, his native village of Pangburne-on- Thames." Then he kept open house at the Elephant for several days, with a band playing, till his prize-money was gone, and he settled down to live upon his pension. He was something of a hero in the village, and his recitals led to an early enthusiasm for Nelson in the breast of Mr. J. C. Holding, which resulted in a collection of Nelson documents, and upon these documents this book is founded. Mrs. Gamlin (who died before the book was published) held a brief for Lady Hamilton, and convinced herself that the relations between the famous pair were absolutely Platonic. Lady Hamilton, in her opinion, never had a child. Common belief attributes to her two daughters. The second of these, " little Emma," is held to have been born in the end of 1803, or in January, 1804—about nine months after the death of Sir William Hamilton—when Nelson was cruising in the Mediterranean aboard the Victory.' This child is only mentioned once,—in a letter from Nelson to Lady Hamilton printed in the anonymous collection issued in 1814. Now the opening sentences in this letter—which is dated April 2nd—do not tally with that of April 10th ; and in a list of his despatches to her drawn up by Nelson in Jane there is no mention of any letter written between March 19th and April 10th. Consequently Mrs. Gamlin concluded that the letter was a forgery, and that no such birth took place. The undisputed correspondence shows no trace of Nelson's expecting Lady Hamilton to be confined ; whereas the letter of April 2nd represents him as being in an agony for news of her. This is a very acute piece of reasoning, and at least worthy to be considered. About the parentage of Horatia, the " adopted daughter " mentioned in Nelson's will, Mrs. Gamlin has a theory which is decidedly plausible. This girl was left as a baby by Lady Hamilton in charge of a Mrs. Gibson one night in January, 1801, and stayed there till Lady Hamilton took her back about three years later, and with Lady Hamilton she lived till the latter's death. Mr. Haslewood, Nelson's lawyer and man of business, stated first to Sir Harris Nicolas, and long years afterwards to Horatia herself, that he knew who Horatia's mother was, and that she was not Lady Hamilton, but had often come to see Horatia at Lady Hamilton's house. Other reasons which Mrs. Gamlin adduces for believing this to be the case are not, perhaps, conclusive, but have weight. She omits, indeed, to notice a letter of Nelson's in which he addresses Lady Hamilton as "dear wife " and speaks of "our little girl" ; and the portrait of Horatia by Cosway, painted in 1815, has a strong like- ness to Nelson. For this, however, the painter may be respon- sible ; and upon the whole we incline to think that a strong case is made out for Mrs. Gamlin's theory, which is that Horatia was the child of Parker, one of Nelson's favourite young officers ; that Parker appealed to Nelson for help in shielding the woman from the consequences of her fault; and that Nelson induced Lady Hamilton to come to the rescue and dispose of the child. Three or four months after Horatia's birth Parker was killed in action, and Nelson adopted the little girl. Horatia's mother married afterwards, and the secret of her parentage had therefore always to be kept. All this may quite well be so, and we rather incline to believe it ; but it makes, in reality, very little difference to the facts of the case. It is scarcely worth while writing a book to prove that Nelson's infidelity to his wife was only moral, and not physical as well. Very probably Lady Hamilton made a sharp distinction between the two and piqued herself on her virtue ; but then Lady Hamilton was not a high- minded woman.
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