[Lord Nelson [Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson], British naval hero.] Collection of contemporaneous material relating to him, including a range of related illustrations and magazine accounts, as well as manuscript poems and other matter.
A nice collection, which both by its content and arrangement indicates the huge esteem in which Nelson was held. The material is in good condition, lightly aged, most items laid down on leaves of gilt-edged paper extracted from an album. Mostly 12mo. This description is arranged under fifteen numbered entries. The manuscript material is at No. 14. ONE: Engraving. ‘Plan of a MANSION HOUSE, proposed for Lord NELSON.’ ‘Gent[leman’s]. Mag[azine]. Feb. 1799. Pt. I. p.97’. Engraved by Longmate from Arthur Brown. With cutting of accompanying article by ‘Blakeney’ titled ‘Plan and Elevation of a Mansion-House for Lord Nelson’. TWO: Engraving. ‘The Funeral Car on which the Body of the late Vice Admiral Horatio Viscount Nelson was conveyed from the Admiralty to St. Pauls Cathedral for Interment on January 9 1806’. ‘Publish’d Feby. 1. 1806, by H. D. Symons’. THREE: Engraving. ‘An exact Representation of the Car as seen in the Grand Funeral procession of the late Viscount Nelson going to St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, January the 9th 1806 / Published January 16th 1806 by Geo. Hawkins, No. 11 Queen Street Golden Sqr. as the Act directs’. FOUR: Engraving by Ridley from Abbott of ‘The Rt. Honble. Admiral Lord Nelson / Duke of Bronti’. With facsimile of his signature on strip of paper beneath it. FIVE: Engraving of reclining female warrior, tracing out the names of Nelson’s victories. ‘Engraved by J. S. A. from the designs by T. K.’. Captioned beneath in pencil: ‘Design for a Monument to Nelson’. SIX: Twin engravings in one design of Nelson and a battle scene. ‘W. S. Johnson, “Nassau Steam Press,” 60, St. Martin’s Lane, Charing Cross.’ SEVEN: Four leaves [from Gentleman’s Magazine], January 1806, carrying pp.65-72. Entirely taken up with an account of ‘Ceremonial of the Public Funeral of the Late Vice-Admiral Horatio Viscount Nelson, K. B. &c. &c. &c.’ EIGHT: Five leaves (pp.35-44) from an unknown source. On pp.36-44 is an ‘Account of the Processions and Ceremonies observed in the Funeral of Lord Nelson.’ NINE: Leaf from ‘The Mirror’, carrying pp.153 and 154. Three-quarters of the text is taken up with an article on the ‘Nelson Memorial’. TEN: Leaf from the Illustrated Naval Almanac, carrying a full-page feature, including half-page illustration of the Battle of St. Vincent. With four similar leaves unconnected with Nelson: ‘Battle of Navarino’ with ‘Battle of Belleisle’ on other side; ‘Sketch of the Battle of Ayetta’; ‘Admiral Rodney’s Action with Count de Grasse’ with ‘Storming of St. Sebastian’s’ on other side; ‘Defeat of the Spanish Armada’. ELEVEN: Small chapbook woodcut of ‘H.M.S. VICTORY’, with a printed letter ‘N’ laid down beneath it. TWELVE: Two leaves each carrying a part of an article titled ‘Battle of Trafalgar. - The Death of Nelson.’ Both with large illustrations of battle scenes, one captioned ‘The Victory engaging the Redoubtable.’ THIRTEEN: Three small cuttings laid down on the same page. One an anecdote about ‘Lord Nelson’s Night-cap’, one about Wolsey’s sarcophagus, and one an illustration of Nelson’s column. FOURTEEN: Manuscript material, clearly written out in a neat hand. Comprises: ‘Line’s [sic] on Nelson’ (poem beginning ‘No, never from each British heart / Shall Nelson’s lov’d remembrance part;’; ‘Battle of St Vincent’ (prose account, possibly incomplete); ‘A Tribute To the Memory of Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson’ (poem by ‘W. T. Fitzgerald’) beginning, ‘The nation’s favorite, the Sovereigns pride, / He rul’d despotic Lord of Ocean’s tide!’); anecdote about Nelson as a lieutenant ‘on board the Lowestoft frigate’; ‘The Death of Nelson’ (poem beginning ‘Each heart was bounding there, / We scorned the foreign yoke / Four our ships were British oak / And hearts of oak our Men / Our Nelson smack’d them on the wave / Three cheers our gallant Seamen gave’) [laid down beside this poem is a cutting with a caricature of a brief joke about ‘Trafalgar Square.’]; an unrelated anecdote about a ‘Tar’ in an auction room; account of Nelson’s funeral; three pages relating to Nelson’s funeral, including the ‘inscription upon the Coffin’, with engraving of the ‘North-West view of St. Pauls Cathedral’ on pink paper, and a manuscript quotation from Virgil, with translation. FIFTEEN: Unrelated item. Engraving of ‘The Monmouth of 64 Guns taking the Foudroyant a French Man of War of 84 Guns in the Mediterranean on the 28th of Feb. 1758.’ ‘Published as the Act directs by Jas. Macgowan & Wm. Davis, March 24th. 1781.