that variety and perplexity of subjects which press
upon her," without any one left to steer her course.
She passes " as much of her time at dear Merton as
possible," and " always feels particularly low " when she leaves it. She tries hard to gain " a mastery over herself," but at present her own unhappiness is as invincible as her gratitude to her old friend who so often influenced her for good. She is distraught, misin-terpreted, the sport of chance and apathy.
"L'ignprance en courant fait sa roide homicide,
L'indifference observe et le hasard decide."
Two years later again, when misfortunes were thick-
ening around her, she thus addressed Heaviside, her
kind surgeon: ". . . Altho' that life to myself may no longer be happy, yet my dear mother and Horatia
will bless you, for if I can make the old age of my
good mother comfortable, and educate Horatia, as
443
the great and glorious Nelson in his dying moments
begged me to do, I shall feel yet proud and delighted
that I am doing my duty and fulfilling the desires and
wishes of one I so greatly honoured." And in the
same strain she wrote in that same year to Greville,
who had then relented towards her. She strove, she
assured him, to fulfil all that " glorious Nelson "
thought that she ".would do if he fell" her "daily duties to his memory." Of " virtuous " Nelson she writes perpetually. On him as perpetually she muses.
For till she had met him she had never known the
meaning of true self-sacrifice. In his strength her
weak soul was still absorbed. Remembrance was now
her guiding star; but it trembled above her over
troubled waters, leading to a dismal haven. Nor, in
her own sadness^ was she ever unmindful of the mis-
ery and wants of others.
Before the year 1808, which was to drive her from
" dear, dear Merton," had opened, she received one more letter which cheered her. Mrs. Thomas, the
widow of her old Hawarden employer, the mother of
the daughter who first sketched her beauty, and whom
Emma always remembered with gratitude, wrote to
condole with her on the misconduct of some of the
Connors. She alluded also to that old relation, Mr.
Kidd, mentioned at the beginning of our story, who
from being above had fallen beyond work, but who
still battened on the bounty of his straitened bene-
factress :
"... I am truly sorry that you have so much
trouble with your relations, and the ungrateful return
your care and generosity meets with, is indeed enough
to turn your heart against them. However; ungrate-
ful as they are, your own generous heart cannot see
them in want, and it is a pity that your great generosity towards them shou'd be so ill-placed. I don't doubt
444 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
that you receive a satisfaction in doing for them, which will reward you here and hereafter. .1 sent for Mr.
Kidd upon the receipt of your letter. I believe he has
been much distressed for some time back. ... As he
observes, he was not brought up for work." In her
opinion, the less pocket-money he gets, the better; it
" will onely be spent in the ale-house." The Reynoldses, too, had been living upon Emma, and another
relation, Mr. Nichol, Kidd's connection, expected ten
shillings a week. Emma had provided Richard
Reynolds with clothes, and a Mr. Humphries with
lodging. They all imagined her in clover, and she
would not undeceive them. When her " extrava-
gance " is brought up against her, these deeds of hidden and ill-requited generosity should be remembered.
She was more extravagant for others than for herself.
She even besought the Queen of Naples to confer a
pension on Mrs. Grafer, though she besought in vain.
And all the time she continued her unceasing presents
to Nelson's relations, and to poor blind " Mrs. Maurice Nelson."
But these were the flickers of a wasting candle. By
April, 1808, Merton was up for sale. The Boltons
had not the slightest inkling of her disasters. They
missed the regularity of her letters; they had heard
that she was unwell, and fretting herself, but they were quite unaware of the cause. Indeed, Anne Bolton
was herself now at Merton with Horatia, under the
care of Mrs. Cadogan, who was soon ill herself under
the worries so bravely withheld.
Maria Carolina, still in correspondence with her
friend, was, however, unable, it would seem, or un-
willing to aid her since she had written the reluctant
plea on her behalf to the English ministers four years
previously. Indeed, it may be guessed that one of the
reasons alleged for disregarding the supplication of
EMMA; LADY HAMILTON 445
Nelson, was that its discussion might compromise the
Neapolitan Queen. This, then, was the end of the
royal gratitude so long and lavishly professed. When
Emma in this year besought her, not for herself, but
for Mrs. Grafer (then on the eve of return to
Palermo), she told Greville that she had adjured her
to redeem her pledge of a pension to their friend " by the love she bears, or once bore, to Emma," as well as
" by the sacred memory of Nelson." If the Queen was at this time in such straits as precluded her from
a pecuniary grant once promised to the dependant, she
might still have exerted herself for her dearest friend.
But " Out of sight, out of mind." In despair, while Rose returned to his barren task of doing little elaborately, Emma betook herself to Lord St. Vincent.
If her importunities could effect nothing with the gods
above, she would entreat one of them below. Per-
haps Nelson's old ally could melt the obdurate min-
isters into some regard for Nelson's latest prayers;
perhaps through him she might draw a drop, if only
of bitterness, with her Danaid bucket from that dreary
official well.
She conjures him by the " tender recollection " of his love for Nelson to help the hope reawakened in
her " after so many years of anxiety and cruel dis-
appointment," that some heed may be paid to the dying wishes of " our immortal and incomparable hero," for the reward of those " public services of importance "
which it was her " pride as well as duty to perform."
She will not harrow him by detailing " the various
vicissitudes " of her " hapless " fortunes since the fatal day when " Nelson bequeathed herself and his infant daughter, expressly left under her guardianship,
to the munificent protection of our Sovereign and the
nation." She will not arouse his resentment " by reciting the many petty artifices, mean machinations,
446 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
and basely deceptive tenders of friendship " which
hitherto have thwarted her. She reminds him that
he knows what she did, because to her and her hus-
band's endeavours she had been indebted for his friend-
ship. The widow of Lock, the Palermo Consul, had
an immediate pension assigned of 800 a year, while
Mr. Fox's natural daughter, Miss Willoughby, ob-
tained one of 300. Might not the widow of the
King's foster-brother, an Ambassador so distinguished,
>
hope for some recognition of what she had really done,
and what Nelson had counted on being conceded?
At the same time both she and Rose besought Lord
Abercorn, who interested himself warmly in her
favour. In Rose's letter occurs an important passage,
to the effect that Nelson on his last return home had,
through him, forwarded to Pitt a solemn assurance
that it was through Emma's " exclusive interposition that he had obtained provisions and water for the English ships at Syracuse, in the summer of 1798, by which
he was enabled to return to Egypt in quest of the
enemy's fleet " ; and also that Pitt himself, while staying with him at Cuffnells, had " listened favourably "
to his representations. Rose had previously assured
Lady Hamilton that he was convinced of the " justice of her pretensions," to which she " was entitled both on principle and policy."
And not long afterwards, when, as we shall shortly
see, kind friends came privately to her succour, she
forwarded another long memorial to Rose, in whose
Diaries it is comprised, clearly detailing both services and misadventures. " This want of success," she repeats, and with truth, " has been more unfortunate
for me, as I have incurred very heavy expenses in com-
pleting what Lord Nelson had left unfinished at Mer-
ton, and I have found it impossible to sell the place."
She might have added that Nelson entreated her not
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 447
to spend one penny of income on the contracts; he
never doubted that this cost at least the nation would
defray. " From these circumstances," she resumes,
" I have been reduced to a situation the most painful and distressing that can be conceived, and should have
been actually confined in prison, if a few friends from
attachment to the memory of Lord Nelson had not in-
terfered to prevent it, under whose kind protection
alone I am enabled to exist. My case is plain and sim-
ple. I rendered a service of the utmost importance to
my country, attested in the clearest and most undeni-
able manner possible, and I have received no reward,
although justice was claimed for me by the hero who
lost his life in the performance of his duty. ... If I
had bargained for a reward beforehand, there can be
no doubt but that it would have been given to me, and
liberally. I hoped then not to want it. I do now
stand in the utmost need of it, and surely it will not be refused to me. ... I anxiously implore that my
claims may not be rejected without consideration, and
that my forbearance to urge them earlier may not be
objected to me, because in the lifetime of Sir William
Hamilton I should not have thought of even mention-
ing them, nor indeed after his death, if I had been left in a less comparatively destitute state."
Yet the latter was the excuse continuously urged by
successive Governments. Both Rose and Canning,
more than once, admitted the justice of her claims,
and even Grenville seems by implication not to have
denied it. Rose always avowed his promise to Nelson
at his " last parting from him " to do his best, and he did it. But he well knew that the real obstacle lay
not in doubt, or in lapse of time, or in the quibble of
how and from what fund it would be possible to satisfy
her claims, but solely in the royal disinclination to
favour one whom the King's foster-brother had mar-
448 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
ried against his will, and whose early antecedents, and
later connection with Nelson, alike scandalised him.
The objections raised were always technical and
parliamentary, and never touched the substantial
point of justice at all. The sum named
6000 or 7000 would have been a bagatelle
in view of the party jobbing then universally prevalent; and no attentive peruser of the whole correspondence
from 1803-1813 can fail to grasp that each successive
minister one generously, another grudgingly at
least never disputed her claims even while he refused
them. It was not their justice, but justice itself that
was denied, and the importunate widow was left plead-
ing before the unjust judge who had more advan-
tageous claimants to content. Pitt's death, in January,
1806, was undoubtedly a great blow to Emma's hopes.
During his last illness she must often have watched
that white house at Putney with the keenest anxiety.
So early as the beginning of 1805, Lord Melville,
whom Nelson had asked to bestir himself on Emma's
behalf during his absence, told Davison that he had
spoken to Pitt personally about " the propriety of a pension of 500 " for her. Melville himself spoke
" very handsomely " both of her and her " services."
Pitt, if he had survived more than a year and had
been quit of Lord Grenville, might have risked the
royal disfavour, as in weightier concerns he never
shrank from doing. The luckless Emma sank appar-
ently between the two stools of social propriety and of-
ficial convenience, while the hope against hope, that
no disillusionment could extinguish, constantly made
her the victim of her anticipations.
For a moment a purchaser willing to give 13,000
for Merton had been almost secured. But debts and
fears hung around her neck like millstones. They in-
terrupted her correspondence and sapped her health,
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON 449
now in serious danger. By June, 1808, she told her
surgeon, Heaviside, that she was so " low and com-
fortless " that nothing did her good. Her heart was so " oppressed " that " God only knows " when that will mend, " perhaps only in heaven." He had
" saved " her life. He was " like unto her a father, a good brother." In vain she supplicated " Old Q."
to purchase Merton and she would live on what re-
mained : he had named her in his will, and that suf-
ficed. With her staunch servant Nanny, and her
faithful " old Dame Francis," who attended her to the end she and Horatia retired to Richmond, where for a
space the Duke allowed her to occupy Heron Court,
though this too was later on to be exchanged for a
small house in the Bridge Road. She herself drew up
a will, bequeathing what still was hers to her mother
for her life, and afterwards to " Nelson's daughter,"
with many endearments, and expressing the perhaps
impudent request that possibly she might be permitted
to rest near Nelson in St. Paul's, but otherwise she de-
sired to rest near her " dear mother." She begged Rose to act as her executor, and she called on him, the
Duke, the Prince, and " any administration that has hearts and feelings," to support and cherish Horatia.
All proved unavailing, and she resigned herself to
the inevitable liquidation. After a visit to the Bol-
tons in October, she returned to arrange her affairs in
November.
A committee of warm friends had taken them in
hand. Many of them had powerful city connectiohs.
Sir John Perring was chairman of a meeting convened
in his house at the close of November. His chief as-
<
br /> sociates were Goldsmid, Davison, Barclay, and Lavie,
a solicitor of the highest standing, and there were five other gentlemen of repute.
A full statement had been drawn up. Her assets
450 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
amounted to 17,500, " taken at a very low rate," and independent of her annuities under the two wills and
her " claim on the Government," which they still put to the credit side. Her private debts, of which a
great part seems to have been on account of the Mer-
ton improvements, amounted to 8,000, but there were
also exorbitant demands on the part of money-lenders,
who had made advances on the terms of receiving " annuities." To satisfy these, 10,000 were required.
Everything possible was managed. All her assets,
including the prosecution of those hopeless claims,
were vested in the committee as trustees, and they
were realised to advantage. Goldsmid himself pur-
chased Merton. 3700 were meanwhile subscribed in
advance to pay off her private indebtedness.
At this juncture Greville reappears unexpectedly
upon the scene. In her sore distress he thawed
towards one whom his iciest reserve and most petti-
fogging avarice had never chilled. He had evidently
asked her to call, though he never seems to have of-
fered assistance. She answered, in a letter far more
concerning her friend Mrs. Grafer's affairs than her
own, that an interview with her " trustees " must, alas !
prevent her : " I will call soon to see you, and inform you of my present prospect of Happiness at a
moment of Desperation"; you who, she adds, "I
thought neglected me, Goldsmid and my city friends
came forward, and they have rescued me from De-
struction, Destruction brought on by Earl Nelson's
having thrown on me the Bills for finishing Merton,
by his having secreted the Codicil of Dying Nelson,
who attested in his dying moments that I had well
served my country. All these things and papers . . .
I have laid before my Trustees. They are paying my
debts. I live in retirement, and the City are going
to bring forward my claims. . . . Nothing, no power
The death of Admiral Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar.
"Thank God, I have done my duty."
From the Painting by W. H. Overend.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
on earth shall make me deviate from my present sys-
tem" she concludes, using the very word which
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