Nelson & His World

I'm so happy to have just won this on Ebay: it dates to late Georgian/early Victorian times and belonged to my 2nd great grandmother, Catherine Nelson Parker Toriana Blanckley after she was adopted (aged 3) by her aunt Susannah Moore nee Matcham who lived at Gipsy Lodge in London. Miss Blanckley, the collar's owner, was the daughter of Capt Edward Blanckley RN; her mother was Harriet, daughter of George Matcham Esq (who travelled overland from India to England in the company only of Arabs) and Lord Nelson's sister Kitty. Catherine went on to marry her cousin Lt Col William George Ward, Lord Nelson's grandson and have 6 daughters who lived at Lutton House in South Brent. Only the youngest of these, Alice (my great grandmother) married. Her only living descendants are through my mother. Before winning this on Ebay, all we had of her is a photo, c1920 when she was about 90. Having this memento of her childhood means loads to me

Congratulations! What a wonderful memento.

You might like to compare it with the dog collar of Nileus,Lord Nelson's dog - who sadly disappeared, despite his ownership being splendidly displayed on his collar.
Presumably he wasn't wearing it when he took off.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collection ... 62045.html

Ah, that's lovely – and quite poignant to me – I'd not seen this before and it feels very sad that Nelson lost the dog he'd made that special collar for. Emma loved dogs too. I expect you are aware of the story that Romney, in Emma's first sitting, finally captured a relaxed, natural pose from her when she had a puppy to hold. We never had dogs in my immediate family, but we are thinking of getting one soon for our daughter. I don't think we'll use Catherine Blanckley's collar on it though!