Dear Forum,
I have read with interest the posts on the Post subject: Re: Burford Bridge? in this forum, and whilst reading the topic, I wondered if there was any account of Nelson having a Royal Marine guard for the journey down to Portsmouth - whatever route was taken?
We know that he left Merton, (on his own), around 10:30pm, in a hired/private Post-Chaise. Would that have been a two horse or four horse team?
Given the perilous nature of the times, and the fact that this was a road, (Brighton and Portsmouth), that was frequently traveled down by Admirals, sailors, merchants as well as bandits, (I know this is 100+ years after the great Highwaymen era, but robbers are robbers), surely, it must have crossed the minds of the French, or Spanish, to assassinate Nelson, given his reputation as a courageous and superior tactical leader at sea - and that he had spent the best part of the past 2 years blockading and harassing the enemy fleet back and forth across the Atlantic and Med.
It's not as if the British didn't suspect or in-fact, encourage this sort of thing themselves; Thomas Hickey, The plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, and the The Despard Plot of 1802.
Travelling alone, at the reported 6 to 9mph, without an escort, would have been an incredibly risky endeavor.
ps Wasn't the order from the Admiralty for Nelson to get to Portsmouth as a consequence of the French and Spanish fleets combining at anchor in Cádiz. Given that news would reach England, and knowing Nelson was at Merton...etc etc etc.
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