Notes and Queries, Number 03, November 17, 1849. Various

till we have the will and codicil, which Captain Hardy informed me was to come by Captain Blackwood from Portsmouth on Tuesday last. We are surprised he is not here. Compts. to Captain Hardy. Write to me as soon as you get to the Nore, or before, if you can.

      Believe me, yours faithfully,

      NELSON

      Excuse this hasty and blotted scrawl, as I have been detained so long at the Admiralty that I have scarce time to save the Post.

      Canterbury,

      Dec. 26, 1805

      Dear Sir,– I received your letters of the 23rd and 25th this morning. I am glad to hear the remains of my late dear and most illustrious brother are at length removed to Mr. Peddieson's coffin, and safely deposited in Greenwich Hospital. Your kind and affectionate attention throughout the whole of this mournful and trying scene cannot fail to meet my sincere and grateful thanks, and that of the whole family. I am perfectly satisfied with the surgeon's reports which have been sent to me, that every thing proper has been done. I could wish to have known what has been done with the bowels—whether they were thrown overboard, or whether they were preserved to be put into the coffin with the body. The features being now lost, the face cannot, as Mr. Beatty very properly observes, be exposed; I hope therefore everything is closed and soldered down.

      I wrote to Mr. Tyson a few days ago, and should be glad to hear from him. I mean to go towards London about the 1st, 2nd or 3rd of Jan (the day not yet fixed), and call at Greenwich for a moment, just to have a melancholy sight of the coffin, &c. &c., when I hope I shall see you.

      I shall be glad to hear from you as often as you have any thing new to communicate, and how the preparations go on. Every thing now is in the hands of government, but, strange to tell, I have not yet heard from the Herald's Office, whether I am to attend the procession or not.

      Believe me,

      Your much obliged humble servant,

      NELSON.

      The codicil referred to in these letters proved to be, or at least to include, that memorable document which the Earl suppressed, when he produced the will, lest it should curtail his own share of the amount of favour which a grateful country would be anxious to heap on the representative of the departed hero. By this unworthy conduct the fortunes of Lady Hamilton and her still surviving daughter were at once blighted.