NELSON & BRONTE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM H.M.S. 'VICTORY' TO ...

Estimate

£7,000 - £10,000

NELSON & BRONTE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM H.M.S. 'VICTORY' TO EMMA HAMILTON IN ENGLAND (UNPUBLISHED?); Fine single-sheet 10 May 1805 letter (integral blank) written and signed by Lord Nelson while victualing at Gibraltar (or on the southern coast of Portugal?) the day before he left in command of the fleet in pursuit of the French fleet across the Atlantic to the West Indies. It seems that Nelson was in a reflective mood and conscious of the risks of life at sea, as he writes fondly to the love of his life back in Merton in England:- “May 10th 1805 [on board H.M.S. ‘Victory’.] My Dearest Emma, In case any thing should happen to the ‘Wasp’ who [sic] is going to England with my dispatches and your letters, I send a duplicate of the draft upon March & Creed, and I beg you to send Mrs. Proctor’s [letter] to her; I have wrote her a line by the ‘Wasp’. We are hard at work victualling the fleet for five months, and hope to start tomorrow. May God be propitious for my wishes and send me a Victor to my dear, dear, dear Emma; then, and not till then can I be happy. May God bless you; pray frequently. Ever your own faithful, Nelson & Bronte. [P.S.] Kiss my Dear Horatia for me." Sent by an unidentified British Naval vessel, in case of the loss of the 'Wasp' (that safely reached Limerick on 30th May as it turned out), to a British port and forwarded (probably by mail) from there. A most attractive and appealing Nelson letter with mention of his and Emma's only child, Horatia, and showing that the British Fleet were prepared for a lengthy West Indies expedition of up to 5 months. It appears to be previously unpublished. In the event, Nelson and his fleet were back at Gibraltar in less than 2 months (on 20th July), as Villeneuve had not lingered in the West Indies. [The comparable 1801 letter from Nelson to Emma in Cavendish's Nov. 2010 auction, lot 308, realised £12,000 inc. premium.] Marvellous item, written on board Nelson's flagship, which this describer can vividly recall having seen (suitably framed and normally beneath a light-exclusion curtain) on the wall of Tony Eastgate's dining room in his home in Wimbledon - a suitably stimulating conversation piece! Cross Reference: AUTOGRAPHS, MILITARY - NAPOLEONIC WAR, PORTUGAL, GIBRALTAR