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| Chinese Whispers http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=812 |
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| Author: | tycho [ Mon Mar 22, 2010 7:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Chinese Whispers |
There have been some interesting threads revealing confusions in the Nelson story, many gaining momentum because writers trust earlier biographers. John Sykes's wounded head and/or hand; the confusion over the dates of his death, and now, over Sergeant Ingram's. There is also the false report that Lady Hamilton witnessed the execution of Caracciolo, when she is said to have addressed Nelson as 'Bronte' when he had not at that point received his dukedom; and the poem written after a visit to her grave wrongly attributed by Pettigrew to Dr Beatty of the Victory. There must be many more. Another wrong attribution came to light when I was researching poems for my Nelson's birthday anthology. Pettigrew attributes to Nelson a poem which he enclosed in a letter to Emma immediately after Copenhagen. He certainly copied it out in a crabbed, exhausted hand, saying that he was 'very tired after a hard fought battle.' However, I discovered that Nelson had not, in fact, written this poem at all. In a letter [Egerton MS 1641] dated 21 January 1801, he asks Emma to send the poem written by their friend Lord William Gordon about 'the anchor in my angel's heart' - one of the lines in the poem. I'll post the whole poem on the poetry thread for those who want to read it. Please post any confusions and contradictions that spring to mind. |
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