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| From the horse's mouth http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=89 |
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| Author: | tycho [ Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:53 am ] |
| Post subject: | From the horse's mouth |
I've mentioned details of the Nelson Museum, Monmouth on the 'sticky' 'museums' thread. One of the things I picked up in the museum's small shop was a facsimile edition of a little book prepared by a local printer Charles Heath in 1802 which describes the naval temple at Kymin, a beauty spot above the town of Monmouth. Most intriguingly, though, it also contains a 20 page eye-witness account by Heath of Nelson's visit to Monmouth in 1802, including 'his speeches and conversation at the dinner table, his own remarks on his important victories.....' etc. which is wonderfully fresh and immediate. I was intrigued by a comment by Nelson on Copenhagen: Mr Henry Parry, of this town, who was seated below his Lordship at table, took an opportunity of asking the illustrious chief a question respecting the action off Copenhagen. "It has been asserted,' said Mr Parry, "that the action that day was more severely contended than the battle of the Nile". "Yes, sir," said his Lordship, "if that had been a French fleet, I should have destroyed it in two hours; but the Danes fought like men!" Nelson's brief speeches of thanks drew attention, as always, to the officers and seamen under his command. But here, he praises the army too: 'Whenever the British Army has been opposed by French forces, without the incumbrance [sic] of German, Russian or other auxiliaries, it has invariably defeated them....' an interesting observation in view of his sometimes tart comments on the military. And there's a Churchillian 'fight on the beaches' touch: 'Suppose the French were to land in England: what would be the consequence? They might plunder and destroy a village - they might burn Monmouth - but I engage for it they would never advance as far as Hereford, for they would always find Britons ready to receive them.' [/i] |
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