Emma was wholly offensive to him, and the patronising
air of one whom Braham's pathos " entertained " may, after its own manner, have been irritating also. The
ambassador was an official type of good taste, and of
Emma, it must be thought, there was always overmuch
in a room. His looks on this occasion must have been
vinegar, and can have ill accorded with that natural
sweetness of expression which, by consent of friend
and foe alike, distinguished Emma from first to last.
Officialism had set itself against Nelson like a flint,
and, likely enough, his devotee was supercilious to her
enemy, whom probably she mimicked after he had
gone, as she certainly used to mimic Nelson's fussy
brother. Still, however it may be deplored, the stub-
born fact remains that Britain's deliverer loved this
woman's reality, and misliked the spirit of officialism; that against him were arrayed the pettiest forces at
home and the mightiest abroad. Nelson endures in
history, and with him Emma, while patterns of the
primmest diplomacy have long faded into the vague-
ness of distance. To appraise Emma, not defence but
understanding is requisite. Antipathy, like flattery,
is the worst critic; and pedantic antipathy is perhaps
its worst form. Burleigh would have made a bad
judge of the Queen of Scots, and Cicero of Cleopatra.
Emma's " immensity " had been for some time in 390 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
evidence, and was grossened in the caricatures. She
affected to think that fatness became her fine stature
and large proportions. It was due, partly, to the por-
ter which she drank for the sake of her voice, and
which, as appears in the earlier letters of the Morrison Collection, had been forwarded by Greville to his uncle
long before Emma had entered his life at Naples.
In the June of this year, too, died Admiral Sir John
Willet-Payne, who, after sitting in Parliament, had for
some time been treasurer of Greenwich Hospital. Nel-
son must have known him, and curiosity is aroused
as to whether Emma ever saw her first tempter again,
and what he thought of her marvellous career.
And in November was to flicker out that sensitive
genius and singular being to whom Emma had been so
beholden in her girlhood. Romney, wasting with mel-
ancholy, had resought the refuge of the Kendal roof-
tree and the ministering wife so long neglected. In
one of his conversations with Hayley, he told him that
he had always studied " Sensibility " by observing the fibrous lines around the mouth. It was Emma's mouth
that had been a revelation to him. One cannot help
wishing that some final correspondence between them
may one day be discovered.
For the summer, Hamilton had planned a driving
tour to the Mil ford property, where the nephew and
steward wished to show his uncle the best work of his
life a flourishing settlement of labourers. Emma
and Nelson accompanied him on the Welsh trip, which
soon turned into a fresh triumphal progress for the
hero of the Nile and of Copenhagen, who shamed the
Government by remaining a Vice-Admiral. Greville's
presence may be assumed. Certainly he was at Mil-
ford. Before they started, William Nelson, who had
just returned from bowing to " Billy " Pitt at Cam-bridge, his wife and their young Horatio, were added
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 391
to the group of travellers. It is strange on this occa-
sion to find the triple alliance of Nelson and the Ham-
iltons reinforced by Greville, before whom, Nelson
had told Emma, conversation must be restrained; in
his official presence they could not speak freely " of kings and beggars." This journey, like its continental predecessor, was certainly not calculated to allay irritation in high places.
They started on the Qth of July with Box Hill once
more " a pretty place, and we are all very happy."
They went on to Oxford, where Nelson received the
freedom of the city in a fine box to the music of finer
orations, and where the Matchams joined the caravan.
It was here that on a visit to Blenheim the Marlbor-
oughs infuriated Emma by declining to receive her.
She was determined to appeal, for herself and her hero,
to the Caesar of the people. She performed her music
both for the select and the vulgar. Everywhere Emma
beat the big drum of popular enthusiasm. The long
highroads, the swarming streets, the eager villages
from Burford to Gloucester, from Gloucester to Ross,
from Ross to Monmouth, Caermarthen and Milford,
from Milford to Swansea, from Swansea to Cardiff,
were thronged with stentorian admirers. On the re-
turn journey, from Cardiff to Newport and Chepstow,
and so to Monmouth again, on to Hereford, Leomin-
ster, Tenbury, Worcester, Birmingham, Warwick,
Coventry, Dunstable, Watford, and Brentford, all
turned out like one man to cheer the postilioned car-
riages. Bells were rung, factories and theatres vis-
ited, addresses read, speeches made, the National
Anthem and " Rule Britannia " sung by the shouting crowds. Wherever they went, the neighbouring magnates loaded Nelson and his friends with invitations,
and Payne-Knight implored Emma for a visit. And
everywhere this exuberant daughter of democracy led
392
and swelled the chorus. Her Nelson should " be first."
" Hip, hip, hip! " " God Save the King! " " Long live Nelson, Britain's Pride ! "
"Join we great Nelson's name
First on the roll of fame,
Him let us sing;
Spread we his praise around,
Honour of British ground,
Who made Nile's shores resounds
God save the King ! "
It was Naples over again, and Emma was in her
true element. Let the whole official brotherhood look
to themselves and dare their worst. They were routed
now. The people were on the side of those who had
toiled hard, of those who had really borne the brunt,
who had risked their lives to save their homes from the
bogey of Europe. " Hip, hip, hip, in excelsisl " No wonder that, when all was over and, hoarse but happy,
Emma reposed at Merton once more, awaiting a fresh
but private jubilation on Nelson's approaching birth-
day, she took up her pen with triumph :
" We have had a most charming Tour which will
Burst some of THEM. So let all the enimies of the
GREATEST man alive [perish?] ! And bless his
friends." In this same letter her native goodness of heart breaks out with equal vehemence about the death
of " poor Dod," one of Nelson's countless proteges :
" Anything that we can do to assist the poor widow
we will." How this "we " reminds us of the " we "
before Sir William married her, which had so an-
noyed Legge' And the sensation of this progress still
tingled in the air. In October Lord Lansdowne
begged in vain for a visit, should they stay again at
Fonthill. While Banks sympathised with Greville's
sigh of relief, Ball told Emma of hi
s interest, smiled
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 393
over her huzzaings, and recalled her kindness to the
Maltese Deputies. Her enthusiasm was still con-
tagious.
But this trip did not close without a conjugal breeze
easily raised and easily calmed.
Emma insisted on recruiting her health by her old
remedy of sea-baths, probably at Swansea; Hamilton,
however, longed to get home. He was exhausted, and
she was petulant, as the following little passage at arms bears witness :
" As I see it is pain to you to remain here, let me beg of you to fix your time for going. Weather I dye
in Piccadilly or any other spot in England, 'tis the same to me; but I remember the time when you wished for
tranquillity, but now all visiting and bustle is your
liking. However, I will do what you please, being ever
your affectionate and obedient E. H." On the back of it Sir William wrote :
" I neither love bustle nor great company, but I like some employment and diversion. ... I am in no
hurry, and am exceedingly glad to give every satisfac-
tion to our best friend, our dear Lord Nelson. Sea-
bathing is usefull to your health; I see it is, and wish you to continue a little longer ; but I must confess that I regret, whilst the season is favourable, that I cannot enjoy my favourite amusement of quiet fishing. I care
not a pin for the great w r orld, and am attached to no
one as much as you." On its fly-leaf Emma added,
" I go, when you tell me the coach is ready," to which Hamilton retorted : " This is not a fair answer to a fair confession of mine." So ended the last of their tiny quarrels. Nestor w^as reconciled to Penelope.
The sands of his life were fast running down, and
he was soon to have that euthanasia which he had
praised to Nelson. Emma's heart smote her as she
beheld his fading powers. He suffered no pain, but he
394 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
gradually sank. He was removed to Piccadilly, and
by the March of 1803 it was clear that his end was in
sight. Both Emma and Nelson were constant in their
attendance and attention. It had been Nelson who, in
his passionate outpouring, occasionally speculated on
" my uncle's " demise; but Emma, apart from gratitude and a sense of the wrong that she had done him,
well knew that his death would remove a real friend
and a loving counsellor. All the past rose up vividly,
from the days of the selfishness of Greville, who was
now again half-hardening himself against her, to
those of the loving husband who had trusted and
shielded her. Some feeling of sorrow, compunction,
and forlornness possessed her. However grievously
she had erred, she did her duty at the last. And at the
last the old man's mind had wandered.
On April 6, 1803, at eleven o'clock, Nelson wrote
this hurried note to Davison :
" 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. I hope she will be left properly, but I doubt."
Greville had once more succeeded.
Nelson would not so have written if Emma had not
so felt. His feelings were coloured by hers. Among
Nelson's papers remains one in Emma's handwriting
intended for no eye but his, and to which no hypocrisy
can be imputed :
"April 6. Unhappy day for the forlorn Emma.
Ten minutes past ten dear blessed Sir William left
me."
In all her private answers to condolence the refrain
is the same " What a man, what a husband." It can scarcely be called falsetto. Not until she had lost him
did she realise all that he had been to her, and how she EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 395
had wronged him. Strange as it may sound, she was
stricken indeed.
And yet her attitudinising heart soon alternated be-
tween different moods. She cut off her flowing locks
and wore them a la Titus in the fashionable mode of
mourning. When Madame Le Brun met her a few
months afterwards, she sat down and sang a snatch
at the piano. On a later occasion the French paintress
noticed that she had put a rose in her hair, and in-
quiring the reason, was told, " I have just received a letter from Lord Nelson." Later on, she consented to oblige Madame Le Brun by privately showing before
a few of the noblesse emigrce some of her " Atti-
tudes," which she had never been willing to display in London.
" On the day appointed," notes the artist in her chronicle, " I placed in the middle of my drawing-room a very large frame, with a screen on either side
of it. I had a strong lime-light prepared and disposed,
so that it could not be seen, but which would light up
Lady Hamilton as though she were a picture. . . . She
assumed various attitudes in this frame in a way truly
admirable. She had brought a little girl with her,
who might have been seven or eight years old, and who
resembled her strikingly. One group they made to-
gether reminded me of Poussin's ' Rape of the Sabines.'
She changed from grief to joy, and from joy to ter-
ror, so that we were all enchanted."
Such a " lime-light," perhaps revealing without being seen, was Emma's own organisation unconsciously
" lighting up " the possibilities of others. Her " Attitudes " were the expression of her successive and often self-deceiving emotions. In the old Indian music, we are told, are certain selected notes, called
" ragas," that, separately and without harmonised relations, strike whole moods into the heart of the listener.
396 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
Such, it seems to me, was her temperament, and such
its function.
Sir William Hamilton was buried by the side of his
first wife, as he had promised her twenty-five years be-
fore.
A month after his decease the will was read in Pic-
cadilly before the assembled relations the Grevilles,
the Cathcarts, the Meyricks, the Abercorns, and the
rest. Nelson forwarded the announcement to Davison
by Oliver. He had suggested the advisability of read-
ing Sir William's deed of gift of the furniture to
Emma before a full conclave, as it might otherwise " be supposed that Mr. C. Greville gives Lady H. the furniture," which her money had bought for Sir William.
The will itself proved Nelson's suspicion of Greville's
influence not altogether unfounded, and the fact
" vexed " him sorely. Though Hamilton had forestalled income, his means were ample ; even Elliot was
astonished at the inadequate provision for his widow. 1
To his " dear wife Emma " he bequeathed a sum of 300, and an annuity of 800, to include provision for
her mother. In a codicil he recites that as he had
promised to pay her debts, amounting to 700, but of
this sum had only paid 250, Greville was to pay her
in advance the current annuity of 800, for herself and
Mrs. Cadogan, while the unpaid remainder of her debts
she was to recover as a charge upon the arrears of pen-
sion owed him by the Government. The last arrange-
ment was nugatory on the face of it. The Government
that had disregarded Sir William was unli
kely to re-
1 Minto Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 283. "Worse off than I imagined." He adds : " She talked very freely of her situation with Nelson, and of the construction the world may have put upon it, but protested that her attachment was perfectly pure which I can believe, though I declare it is of no consequence whether it is so or not." Maria Carolina also deplored her "indifferent provision."
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 397
gard his widow. It is but just towards Greville, who
had been always at his uncle's elbow, to relate that
within a week of Sir William's demise he urged his
dying wishes on the then Foreign Secretary in the
strongest terms, while at the same time he repeated
his (Hamilton's) previous strictures on the Govern-
ment's past treatment. " I know," he concluded, " that the records of your office confirm the testimony of their Sicilian Majesties by letter as well as by their Ministers of circumstances peculiarly distinguished and
honourable to her, and at the same time of high im-
portance to the public service." But Emma was thus
left with no capital except the furniture, of uncertain
value, and with an income diminished by a debt which
her husband had promised to discharge, but of which
only one-quarter had been settled. Greville and his
brother, the Colonel, were declared executors, the first being residuary legatee. To Nelson he gave an enamel
of Emma " as 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."
This avowal does Hamilton honour. Poor Nestor!
however reluctant his submission, whatever his mis-
givings, he steeled himself against them to the last.
I do not think that Hamilton was wholly befooled, but
how could the Nelson that he loved reconcile to his
conscience such tributes of trust from one whom he
had long cherished with more than esteem? He and
Emma must both have felt a pang of shame and re-
morse. They had skated on thin ice together. Though
their duplicity, uncongenial to the frankness of both,
had been imposed on them by their united care for each
other's interest, and Horatia's, it had also imposed upon others. Bearing in mind every extenuation, one would
fain forget this unlovely spectacle; apart from extenu-
398 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
ation it is hideous. Their falsity towards Hamilton
cannot be condoned. Their sin had impaired Emma's
Full text of Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples; Page 45