Nelson & His World

Thanks for posting that, p-c. Isn't it amazing that unpublished material still seems to surface. I wonder if there is a subtle hint there from His Lordship that the Freedom of the Borough might be in order.....?

As a matter of interest, was he ever made a Freeman of Portsmouth? It seems surprising, considering the naval connection. The local worthies might have heard, though, that he hated the place and taken offence!

Strange..looking through the roll of freemen, i see Collingwood, St Vincent and Calder, but no Nelson

http://www.history.inportsmouth.co.uk/p ... eemen2.htm

What an interesting find, but it does sound rather like a rumour spread by others that Nelson was offended, since they were presumably offended themselves! Perhaps there may be a hint there, but the letter is just what one might expect from Nelson, the son of a clergyman, in having consideration for those who might be in church.

Nelson was obviouly not a Freeman in 1801, and it is strange that he never seems to have become one. Incidentally, and I have not noticed this before in his letters although Anna may have done, but has anyone noticed the distinct upward, and to the right, direction of his writing. I wonder what a person who studies handwriting (I forget their name) would make of that – or perhaps they already have? Might it have any relation to his feelings after Copenhagen?

I am however, a little mystified as to what occasion this refers to, as the letter appears to be dated on board the St.George on the 27th April, 1801, when Nelson was still in the Baltic. He didn't actually return from the Baltic until 19th June, in the gun-brig Kite, and I think landed at Great Yarmouth.