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| Fake letters? http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44 |
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| Author: | tycho [ Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Fake letters? |
I mentioned on another thread a copy of the Gentleman's Magazine for 1799. This volume contains a curious entry. In the April edition they publish two famous letters, the one Nelson wrote after Vanguard was almost wrecked, an incident which he felt was a reproach to his pride and vanity, and the one Nelson's father wrote to the Rev. Brian Allott, thaking him for his congratulations on the Nile victory and speaking effusively of his 'great and good son.' Very strangely, in the following month, they apologise and say that 'there is some reason to believe that the letters ascribed to Lord Nelson and his father on p 344 are not genuine.' Can this be true? |
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| Author: | Tony [ Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Nicolas published Nelson's letter to Fanny of the 29th May 1798 about the storm with the following comment: From a Copy in the possession of Mrs. Conway, and another Copy in the Nelson Papers. This beautiful Letter is printed in most of the " Lives of Nelson," and also in the " Gentleman's Magazine" for 1799, vol. lxix. p. 344, in p. 392 of which work a suspicion is, however, expressed that it is not genuine ; but there are no grounds for doubting its authenticity. The storm and its effects are admirably described in a letter from Captain Berry, of the Vanguard, who, when alluding to this circumstance in his " Narrative of the Battle of the Nile," says that, " at the moment when the misfortune befell the Vanguard, the British Squadron was not many leagues distant from the French Fleet under Buonaparte, which had on that very day set sail from Toulon." Berry's long letter is included as a footnote, and makes very dramatic reading. |
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