MEMOIRS OF
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
The Friend of Lord Nelson
AND THE COURT OF NAPLES
With a Special Introduction
and Illustrations
NEW YORK
P F C O LLI ER & SON
PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1910
BY P. F. COLLIER & SON
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION . . 5
I. THE CURTAIN RISES: 1765-1782 . . . 13
II. THE "FAIR TEA-MAKER OF EDGWARE Row": 1782-1784 37
III. "WHAT GOD, AND GREVILLE, PLEASES": To March 1786 60
IV. APPRENTICESHIP AND MARRIAGE: 1787-1791 . . .81
V. TILL THE FIRST MEETING: 1791-1793 .... 124
VI. "STATESWOMAN" : 1794-1797 157
VII. TRIUMPH : 1798 191
VIII. FLIGHT: December 1798 January 1799 . . . 231
IX. TRIUMPH ONCE MORE: To August 1799 . . . 252
X. HOMEWARD BOUND: To December 1800 . . . 305
XL FROM PICCADILLY TO "PARADISE" MERTON : 1801 . . 335
XII. EXIT "NESTOR": January 1802 May 1803 . . . 380
XIII. PENELOPE AND ULYSSES: June 1803 January 1806 . 402
XIV. THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW IN LIQUIDATION: February
1806 July 1814 .433
XV. FROM DEBT TO DEATH : July 1814 January 1815 . . 465
Memoirs Vol. 14 1
INTRODUCTION
"AMONG the lovely faces that haunt history none,
surely, is lovelier than that of Emily Lyon, who
abides undying as Emma, Lady Hamilton. Yet it
was never the mere radiance of rare beauty that en-
titled her to such an empire over the hearts and wills
of several remarkable men and of one unique genius,
or which empowered a girl humbly bred and basely
situated to assist in moulding events that changed the
current of affairs. She owned grace and charm as
well as triumphant beauty; while to these she added
a masculine mind, a native force and sparkle ; a singu-
lar faculty, moreover, of rendering and revealing the
thoughts and feelings of others, that lent an especial
glamour to both beauty and charm."
Walter Sichel thus strikes the keynote to the re-
markable life-story here presented a story which
transcends the bounds of romance and fascinates and
baffles the reader by turns. Indeed, no two critics of
this famous beauty and confidante of Lord Nelson
have ever agreed as to her place in history. To one
she is an adventuress, luring Nelson on by the sheer
power of her physical charm; to another, she is his
guiding star, his inspiration; while others see in her
merely an astute politician, eager for power. To
quote Mr. Sichel again :
"It will be found that Lady Hamilton, by turns ful-
somely flattered and ungenerously condemned, was a
picturesque power and a real influence. She owned
5
6 INTRODUCTION
a fine side to her puzzling character. She was never
mercenary, often self-abandoning, and at times actu-
ally noble. Her courage, warm-heartedness and gift
of staunch friendship, her strength in conquering, her
speed in assimilating circumstances, the firmness mixed
with her frailty, were conspicuous; and it was the
blend of these that, together with her genuine grit,
appealed so irresistibly to Nelson. She must be
largely judged by her capabilities. Her faults were
greatly those of her antecedents and environment.
She rose suddenly to situations and fulfilled them,
while these again led her both to climax and catas-
trophe. She worked long and hard, and with suc-
cess; she took a strong line and pursued it. She be-
came a serious politician in correspondence with most
of the leaders in the European death-grapple with
Jacobinism. So far, as has been represented, from
having proved the mere tool of an ambitious queen,
it will appear that more than once she swayed that
beset and ill-starred woman into decision. So far
from having craftily angled for Nelson's love, it will
be shown that the magnet of her enthusiasm first at-
tracted his. She was indeed singularly capable of
feeling enthusiasm, and of communicating and en-
kindling it. It is as an enthusiast that she must
rank."
"The story of her wonderfully checkered career
from her cradle to her grave," writes W. H. Long in an earlier edition of her Memoirs, "and her connection with the greatest naval commander the world has ever
seen, is as attractive and thrilling as a romance, and
will serve for all time 'to point a moral or adorn a
tale.' " We find in these pages the life history of a girl of obscure but honest parentage beginning her
career as a household servant, then practically cast
adrift in the streets seeking a precarious living in
INTRODUCTION 7
doubtful ways; thence rising from the very edge of
circumstance by successive stages to become the in-
spiration of artists and Bohemians, the protegee of
ministers, the wife of an ambassador, the trusted con-
fidante of a queen., and the all-absorbing passion of a
nation's hero. Rapid as this ascent to power was, the
descent was no less swift, and the poverty which ac-
companied her early years again greets her at the end
of the journey. The bare outline of such a career
exhibits its remarkable contrasts of light and shadow.
We can only explain it in part by a study of the
woman herself the same woman who, as an un-
tutored girl of nineteen, sighed : "If I only had a good education, what a woman I might have been!"
Lady Hamilton rose to power not merely through
beauty of face many other women have been thus
endowed but through a combination of rare qualities
which astounded such critics as Goethe, Sir Horace
Walpole, the artists Romney and Madame Le Brun,
and men and women in every walk of life. These
qualities were a naturally fine mind, a magnetic per-
sonality, an overflowing sympathy and generosity,
and a boundless enthusiasm. One may also character-
ize her as naturally theatrical. She did not pose, she
was the living personification of the emotions she
typified; and this natural adaptiveness became in-
tensified by the scenes into which the untutored girl
was so suddenly cast.
And what a theatre it was ! England, just recover-
ing from the American War of Independence, was
facing a conflict with France. The latter country had
emerged from the throes of Revolution only to plunge
into a Titanic struggle with every other European
nation. Napoleon ma
rched through Italy, overran
Egypt and swept the Mediterranean with his ships,
preparatory to wider conquests. The Mediterranean
8 INTRODUCTION
thus became a seething caldron, and in its very centre
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies struggled for exist-
ence. It was at Naples, the capital of this kingdom,
that Emma, Lady Hamilton, as wife of the English
Ambassador spent the momentous years of her life,
and here her peculiar genius found full scope. She
stirred her sluggish ambassador husband to action.
She became the real power behind the Sicilian throne,
through the friendship of Maria Carolina the Queen
(sister of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette of France).
And when the fleet of Nelson drew near in pursuit of
the French, she it was who procured water and provi-
sion for it, enabling Nelson to fight and win his fa-
mous Battle of the Nile. Upon the return of the victor
began his remarkable intimacy with both the Hamil-
tons, which was to endure through the lifetime of
each and all. And of the three, the chivalrous atti-
tude of the elderly Sir William is alone meritorious.
His regard for his wife and his friend never wavered ;
while they, carried mutually onward by a wave of ir-
resistible love, forgot the one his wife, the other her
husband in the liaison so widely known to history.
That Lady Hamilton's influence upon Nelson was
permanent and paramount is never disputed. He ideal-
ized her and strove to live up to the fond ideal which
he cherished. His letters constantly attest his devotion, and his dying message confided her and her child to
the care of his country a charge which ungrateful
England wholly neglected. Nelson, indeed, always
hoped to have been able to legalise this union of hearts.
Emma was his "wife before God," his "pride and delight." While to her, Nelson was "the dearest husband of her heart," her "hero of heroes," her "idol." They lived for each other, and died in the hope that they
should meet again. "Nelson's unselfishness trans-
figured her to herself j she became capable of great
INTRODUCTION 9
moments. And she was born for friendship. 'I would
not be a lukewarm friend for the world,' she wrote
to him at the outset; 'I cannot make friendships with
all, but the few friends I have I would die for them.'
She was always warm-hearted to a fault, as will
amply appear as her character grows up in these pages.
So far from numbing Nelson, she nerved him; nor.
did she debase any within the range of her influence."
The earliest ''Memoirs of Lady Hamilton" ap-
peared shortly after her death, in 1815, from the pen
of an anonymous author, and were published by H.
Colburn, London. They were widely read, a second
enlarged edition appearing a few months later.
Frequent printings were made, and finally W. H.
Long brought out a revised edition in 1891. But
other and more authentic memoir material meanwhile
became available all of which has been utilised by
the present editor. The first of these sources is a
volume of "Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamil-
ton," published by Thomas Lovewell & Co., London, 1814. The reader of the present book will note how
these cherished letters were stolen from Lady Hamil-
ton, while she was ill and in trouble, and how she
stoutly denied any responsibility for their publication.
Nevertheless, they are undoubtedly genuine, many of
the originals having been preserved, and they furnish
an important basis for these Memoirs. They include
letters by Lady Hamilton, her husband, Greville,
Bristol, but chiefly a long series of private letters from Nelson himself. The editor has also drawn upon
various recent manuscript collections in the British
Museum, such as the correspondence of Lady Hamil-
ton with Nelson in the autumn of the year 1798, after
the Nile Victory, and letters between Lady Hamilton
and Mrs. William Nelson, during 1801, relative to the
Prince of Wales episode which created such a scandal
io INTRODUCTION
in officialdom. The latter collection was not obtained
by the Museum until 1896, and has therefore not been
available to preceding biographers. Besides the above
there are other important sources, such as the Nelson
family papers, the Acton-Hamilton correspondence,
the manuscript letters of Maria Carolina, Queen of
Naples, in the British Museum, and numerous state
documents and private papers. Mr. Sichel has left
no bit of evidence unturned, basing his story closely
upon contemporary evidence, with the result that he
has here given the first complete and accurate pen
portrait of Lady Hamilton which has yet appeared.
"It is a career of widespread interest and unusual
fascination," he finds, "a human document of many problems that well repay the decipherer and the discoverer. My aim throughout has been to quicken
research into life, and to furnish a new study of her
striking temperament and the temperaments which be-
came so curiously interwoven both with each other
and with history. I venture also to hope," he adds,
"that Nelson's own character and achievements stand more fully revealed by the fresh lights and side-lights
which serve to bring his extraordinary individuality
into relief, to explain his policy, and to clear up some vexed passages both in his private and his public actions."
Whatever sentence the reader may pronounce on
the evidence to be submitted, he cannot fail to mark
the psychological problems of her being. In any case,
with all her blots and failings, Lady Hamilton presents
one of the most fascinating studies in the eternal duel
of sex. To her may well be applied the line which
her husband quoted in his book of 1772: "The
heroine of a thousand things."
LETTER FROM LORD NELSON TO LADY HAMILTON
[See next page, also pp. 197-199]
NOTE ON NELSON'S LETTER
(Reproduced on foregoing page)
The circumstances calling for this remarkable letter
are given in full in Chapter VII. "Nelson was in chase of Buonaparte's fleet," it begins. The English admiral's instructions were to water and provide his fleet in any
Mediterranean port, except in Sardinia, if necessary
by arms. The success of his expedition absolutely
depended upon it. The various ports, however, were
so dominated by Napoleon, then at the height of his
power, that they dared not welcome the English, even
if willing.
At this critical juncture, the woman's hand suc-
ceeded where the mailed fist might have failed. Lady
Hamilton's husband was Ambassador to Naples, and
she herself exerted a vital influence in affairs of that little kingdom, not so much through her husband's
position, as her own close friendship with Queen Caro-
lina of Naples. She obtained secret permission from the
Queen to obtain supplies for the fleet, in a personal
note so jealously guarded that when it is forwarded
/>
to Nelson, Lady Hamilton entreats him to "kiss it, and send it back by Bowen, as I am bound not to give any
of her letters."
_ The overjoyed Admiral hastened to kiss the pre-
cious missive; his ships were quickly supplied; and not
long thereafter the news that the French fleet had
been destroyed in the Battle of the Nile thrilled the
world.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
CHAPTER I
THE CURTAIN RISES 1765-1782
ON the morning of January 10, 1782, the punctil-
ious and elegant Honourable Charles Francis
Greville, gloomy still over the loss of his War-
wick election, but consoled by a snug, if unsafe, post
in the Board of Admiralty, much exercised, too, in his
careful way, about minerals, animals, science, the fine
arts, and the flickering out of the American war, was
even more exercised by a missive from a poor young
girl who had already crossed his path. Fronting him
in the dainty chamber of his mansion in the new
and fashionable Portman Square, hung the loaned
" Venus " attributed to Correggio, and slightly re-touched with applied water-colour. This over-prized
picture had been for years the cherished idol of his
uncle and alter ego, Sir William Hamilton, K.B., Fel-
low of the Antiquarian and the Royal Societies, mem-
ber of the Dilettanti, the Tuesday, and other clubs,
foster-brother of the now George III., and sometime
both his and his brother's equerry; the busy man of
pleasure, the renowned naturalist and virtuoso of Port-
land vase celebrity, and already for about eighteen
years His Britannic Majesty's amiably-grumbling Am-
bassador at the Court of the King of the two Sicilies.
Greville's natural sangfroid was not easily ruffled, but this letter almost excited him. It was franked by
13
14 EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
himself on a wrapper in his own neat handwriting,
bore the Chester postmark, and contrasted strongly
with the tasteful tone of the room and its superfine
owner.
It ran as follows : " Yesterday did I receve your
kind letter. It put me in some spirits for, believe me, I am allmost distracktid. I have never hard from Sir
H., 1 and he is not at Lechster now, I am sure. I have
wrote 7 letters, and no anser. What shall I dow?
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