Nelson & His World

Is this rational behaviour? - Rebuilding a summer house just because Nelson and Emma spent an hour there drinking a cup of tea? It's not even as though Sir William left them inside on their own...

Mind you, some archaeologists are a bit odd - there was one on the telly the other night ecstatically holding up a perfectly formed piece of Viking poo, lovingly excavated from a York cesspit...

Absolutely - let the building begin!!

I only look in on 2 types of internet forum.

The Nelson/naval ones and ones relating to 1960's/70's music - mainly original vinyl recordings.

When you see the obsessive/compulsive behaviour going on amongst those guys this pales into insignificance.

Seriously though - quirky little things like this really appeal to me. Can't say why but they just do.

MB

Well they need to know what it looked like before the building can begin. They are looking for someone with a photo of it before it was knocked down - can anyone oblige?

Tony

Unfortunately can't help with a photo/image.

But is this in the garden behind a bank in Monmouth.

Or am I confusing it with something else?

MB

Yes, indeed it is - but I find it all very confusing - it seems that the summer house replaced by the 'Nelson Pavilion' was not the one where they had tea. That seems to have been another small one whose footprint they have now found. Or have I got this wrong - was the pavilion just built in a different place? See here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... z12MrPFcHv

Perhaps they had tea separately in different summerhouses – their first 'tiff'? How romantic!

I can't really see the point of the 'project' either (the phrase 'clutching at straws' springs to mind), but if anything has Nelson and Emma's names remotely attached to it in romantic fashion, then they're gonna do it - whatever anyone else thinks! That bank could be handy as well!

It sounds as though this summerhouse (these summerhouses?) was (were) really pivotal to their relationship. (Horatia wasn't actually conceived in either of them as well, was she? Probably not, it they'd had a tiff.) I didn't know either, that Emma was 'aristocratic'! The things you learn.

Restoring historic gardens seems to be quite a craze at the moment so it's not surprising they want to restore the summerhouse as well. Monmouth is the home of the Nelson Museum and His Lordship made a historic visit to the town so maybe there's also the hope of luring the tourists by exploiting the link, however tenuous, with a great love story.

It's certainly worked in Verona, the home of those two other famous lovers, Romeo and Juliet, where the house 'said to be' the home of Juliet Capelli, the 'inspiration' for Juliet of Shakespeare's famous play, is now a 'must' on the tourist trail. There's a statue of Juliet, and a wall where you could leave messages about your beloved - though I think they've just had a cull of these - all based on a legend.

All the world (except Tony) loves a lover!

Another link with Nelson in Monmouth was the Beaufort Arms, the hotel where Nelson and his party were accommodated. It was recently converted into flats and the Nelson Suite was for sale. I was tempted to 'downsize' but the lack of a garden dissuaded me.

But only the British would celebrate the place where two lovers drank a cup of tea...

Chaperoned by Sir W...

Ah, but there's romance in tea! As the old song has it:


Picture you upon my knee
Just tea for two and two for tea
Just me for you and you for me...alone-

And Sir William turning a blind eye...........

Tony,

I should give this one up before it develops, as the male of the species never seems to get very far in this sort of debate!