Hamilton, Emma

enthusing on the public adulation of Nelson ("...Oh how our Hero has been received I wish you Cou'd Come to hear all our story most interesting Cou'd you not come for 2 or 3 days..."), informing her that "We have just been to see the place at Epsom for you & of which I enclose you the particulars", adding that "if it wou'd be worth Mr Matchams while to come to see it we shall be most happy to see him", 2 pages, 4to, integral address panel in the hand of Nelson, Merton, 13 September 1802, postal markings, tears at seal and at folds, some discolouration at address panel

Catherine Matcham (née Nelson), thence by descent; Sotheby’s London, Trafalgar: Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, 5 October 2005, lot 29

Extracts from this letter are printed in Matcham M Eyre, The Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe, 1911, p.202.

Nelson and Emma Hamilton had just returned from a journey to Wales, during which Nelson had drawn crowds and been given a rapturous welcome wherever he appeared. Emma's emphasised hope that Catherine would come to Merton to hear "our story" is probably an oblique reference to the division in the family occasioned by Nelson's rejection of his wife.