The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope Part 7

--I think it is a great proof of genius to have written a letter without naming the event. What say you to Lord Collingwood? I would rather have his patent of n.o.bility than the longest pedigree in the kingdom. I should glory more in his t.i.tle than in the Duke of Norfolk's.

Mamma had a letter from Lady Collingwood to-day, still very anxious for his safety, as she had heard nothing since the Victory, and his s.h.i.+p was then much disabled. He had written to her Lord Nelson's death was a most severe blow to him, for he was his greatest friend. I almost wish dear William had been with him.

_November 20th., 1805._ FARNELY.

We begin to be impatient for more news. Think of poor Lady Collingwood--she was in a shop in Newcastle when the Mail arrived covered with ribbands, but the coachman with a black hat-band. He immediately declared the great victory, but that Lord Nelson and all the Admirals were killed. She immediately fainted. When she heard from Lord Collingwood first he wrote in the greatest grief for his friend, and said the fleet was in a miserable state. Perhaps that may bring him home.

Are you not pleased with his being created a Peer in so handsome a manner. Why has not Lady Nelson some honour conferred upon her? Surely the Widow of our Hero ought not to be so neglected.

Yesterday we drank to the immortal memory of our Hero. Mr Fawkes has got a very fine print of him.

The clock strikes ten which announces breakfast, therefore adieu, my dear John.

The wish expressed in the last letter that more tidings would arrive respecting the great event which had taken place, was speedily gratified.

A letter written by Collingwood to Sir Peter Parker on November 1st, was sent _via_ Stanhope for his perusal, and he preserved a copy of it.

_Lord Collingwood to Sir Peter Parker._ _November 1st., 1805._

You will have seen from the public accounts that we have fought a great battle, and had it not been for the fall of our n.o.ble friend who was indeed the glory of England and the admiration of all who saw him in battle, your pleasure would have been perfect.... It was a severe action, no dodging or manoeuvres. They formed their line with nicety and waited our attack with composure. They did not give a gun until we were close to them & we began first. Our s.h.i.+ps were fought with a degree of gallantry which would have warmed your heart. Everybody exerted themselves and a glorious day they made of it, people who cannot comprehend how complicated an affair a battle is at sea and judge of an officer's conduct by the number of sufferers in his s.h.i.+p, often do him a wrong, and though there will appear great difference in the loss of men, all did admirably well; and the conclusion was good beyond description, eighteen hulks of the enemy lying amongst the British fleet without a stick standing, and the French Achilles burning.--But we were close to the rocks of Trafalgar [5] & when I made the signal for anchoring, many s.h.i.+ps had their cable shot & not an anchor ready.

Providence did for us what no human effort could have done, the wind s.h.i.+fted a few points and we drifted off the land. The next day bad weather began and with great difficulty we got our captured s.h.i.+ps towed off the land. The second, Gravina, who is wounded, made an effort to cut off some of the s.h.i.+ps with a squadron of 9 s.h.i.+ps with which he retired. In the night the gale increased and two of his s.h.i.+ps, the "_Mayo_" of 100 guns and "_Indomitable_" of 80 were dismasted. The "_Mayo_" anch.o.r.ed amongst our hulks and surrendered; the "_Indomitable_" lost on the sh.o.r.e and I am told that every soul perished. Among such numbers it is difficult to ascertain what we have done, but I believe the truth is 23 sail of the line fell into our hands of which three got in again in the gale of wind....

The storm being violent and many of our own s.h.i.+ps in most perilous situations, I found it necessary to order the captures,--all without masts, some without rudders & many half full of water--to be destroyed, except such as were in better plight, for my object was their ruin & not what might be made of them. As this filled our s.h.i.+ps with prisoners and the wounded in a miserable condition, I sent a flag to the Marquis of Solana [6] to offer him his wounded men, which was received with every demonstration of joy and grat.i.tude, & two French Frigates & a Brigg were sent out for them. In return, he offered me his Hospitals & the security of Spanish honour that our wounded should have every care & every comfort that Spain could afford, so you see, my dear Sir, though we fight them, we are upon very good terms.

But what most astonished them was our keeping the sea after such an action, with our injured masts and crippled s.h.i.+ps, which I did the longer to let them see that no efforts of theirs could drive a British Squadron from its station.

This letter is of exceptional interest since it throws fresh light on a matter which has now afforded food for controversy for over a century.

Nelson's dying injunctions had been that the fleet was to anchor. Owing, it was contended, to Collingwood having failed promptly to carry out these instructions of the master mind, many prizes were lost. James, who in his _Naval History_ is severe in his criticism of Collingwood's error of judgment in this particular, has further pointed out that four s.h.i.+ps which did anchor on the evening of the engagement weathered the gale successfully. This letter of Collingwood gives his reasons for his course of action. It proves that although when he did give the order to anchor its execution was impracticable, yet that he had strong reason for destroying a number of the captured s.h.i.+ps, which were all but worthless as prizes. His a.s.sertion, "My object was their ruin and not what might be made of them," bears out the verdict of Lord St Vincent, quoted by Lord Eldon, that "Collingwood's conduct after the Battle of Trafalgar in destroying under difficult circ.u.mstances the defeated fleet was above all praise"; while the conclusion of Collingwood's letter contains a sentiment at which few will cavil.

From Mrs Stanhope's Uncle, Edward Collingwood, in Northumberland, there was subsequently forwarded to her a letter written by Collingwood in the first glory of victory and the first bitterness of his grief for Nelson's death.

My dear friend received his mortal wound about the middle of the fight, and sent an officer to tell me that he should see me no more.

His loss was the greatest grief to me. There is nothing like him for gallantry and conduct in battle. It was not a foolish pa.s.sion for fighting, for he was the most gentle of human creatures, and often lamented the cruel necessity of it; but it was a principle of duty, which all men owed their country in defence of their laws and liberty.

He valued his life only as it enabled him to do good, and would not preserve it by any act he thought unworthy. He wore four stars upon his breast and could not be prevailed to put on a plain coat, scorning what he thought a shabby precaution: but that perhaps cost him his life, for his dress made him the general mark.

He is gone, and I shall lament him as long as I live.

To Walter Stanhope he wrote:--

_Queen, March 6th., 1806._

I thank you and Mrs Stanhope most sincerely for your kind congratulations on the success of the Fleet, and the high honour his Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer on me in testimony of his approbation, which I am sure will be very gratifying to all my friends, and that you will enjoy it as much as any of them.

I have indeed had a severe loss in the death of my excellent friend Lord Nelson. Since the year 73 we have been on terms of the greatest intimacy--chance has thrown us very much together in service and on many occasions we have acted in concert--there is scarce a Naval subject that has not been the subject of our discussion, so that all his opinions were familiar to me; and so firmly founded in principles of honour, of justice, of attachment to his country, at the same time so entirely divested of everything interesting to himself, that it was impossible to consider him but with admiration. He liked fame and was open to flattery so that people sometimes got about him who were unworthy of him. He is a loss to his country that cannot easily be replaced.

Thus in a few words, the very reticence of which enhances their significance, did Collingwood sum up the greatness and the weakness of Nelson. Gifted, brilliant, faulty by reason of his emotional temperament, strong by reason of his enthusiasm--his all-enthralling sense of duty, Nelson flashed like a meteor across the ken of his generation to vanish in a haze of glory. He died at the psychological moment--his life, according to this account, the sacrifice to a dazzling folly. And the man whom he loved--the man whose sterling worth is swamped by Nelson's more vivid personality, was left to battle on alone through the weary years. The intoxication of victory did not blind Collingwood to the colossal task which yet lay before him. To Stanhope he wrote with undiminished anxiety:--

The idea that the Victory we gained has so entirely reduced the enemy's fleet that no danger is now to be apprehended from them, ought not to be encouraged. On the contrary, I believe they will make up for their loss by extraordinary exertion. You see they have immediately sent all their fleet to sea, and clean as they are from Port, they can avoid an encounter when they are not very superior. The s.h.i.+ps that I have here are many of them the dullest in the British fleet, so that I have little chance of getting near them until they come with double our number, and when they do, I shall do the best with them I can.

Whatever their project is, it must be interrupted--defeated if possible. Bonaparte seems determined to have the whole of the Mediterranean, islands and all. Whenever he is prepared to take possession he knows how to make a quarrel with the Court of Madrid.

A few months later he wrote:--

I have a laborious and anxious life and little time to write even to my wife. The only comfort I have here is good health and the consciousness that I am doing the best I can for my country--and a good deal I believe we shall have to do before we can establish a happy and secure peace--for I believe in the heart of the Tyrant enmity is so deeply rooted towards England, that it will only be extinguished with his natural life. I consider the contest with him but in its infancy--our independence as a people is at stake. Wisdom in our councils and fort.i.tude in the field was never so necessary to us, and I trust neither will be found wanting.

In every quarter the power of France is increasing,--here the Spaniards are but his Puppets, his mandates come to Cadiz as they go to Brest. His birthday is kept as that of their Sovereign, the French flag is worn upon the Governor's house, upon rejoicing days, with that of the Spanish. In Italy they hoist it upon the same staff as that of the Pope--it will not be long before the Pope's is worn out with the contentions of its bad neighbourhood. Sir Sidney Smith is doing what he can to rouse the Calabrians to resistance--he gives them money and the mob follow his officers--but the people of property have universally attached themselves to the French-not from liking them-- but in the hope that in the end they may be left with the rag of their fortunes.

At Cadiz they are making great progress in their equipment of a fleet, they have 12 sail of the line ready for sea, two more well advanced in their fitting,--I have 9, which I consider to be equal to beating them, but whenever we meet I would do more-_not a shadow of one should be left upon the face of the waters_. They will be cautious whenever they come--and my s.h.i.+ps sail but ill in general.

I heard from Lady Collingwood that she had the pleasure of visiting you when in town.

And then comes a more personal note:--

I am totally at a loss about the obtaining my patent--from what office does it issue and about what sum is the amount of the fees? I suppose I shall be ruined by them. I will be much obliged to you for any information you can give me on these subjects--that I may not, by delaying to do what is proper, seem negligent of this high honour of which I am (I hope) justly proud. Sir Isaac Heard sent me the form of a letter which it was necessary to write to the Duke of Norfolk or Hereditary Earl Marshal, for his Grace's patent to Garter, to grant me supporters of armorial bearings appropriate. I suppose he will let me know when that is done.

I hope you will forgive me, my dear Sir, for mentioning this subject to you, but from my total ignorance of everything relating to it, I am afraid of neglecting something which I ought to do.

Stanhope furnished his friend with all necessary information, and on the following December 4th, Mrs Stanhope wrote to her son--

Lord Collingwood proves himself worthy of the great charge reposed in him. Mr Stanhope says he thinks next to Pitt's his is the greatest trust. His property must be small. He married a Miss Blackett whose father was brother to the late Sir Edward and is Uncle to the present Sir William Blackett, a man of large fortune in Northumberland. He has two daughters, the eldest must be nearly fourteen. I had this morning a long account from my uncle of a ball given by Lady Collingwood at Newcastle, where 450 people sat down to supper. Unfortunately the Mayor instead of giving Lord Collingwood's health, gave _The Memory of Lord Nelson_, with a solemn dirge, which so affected Lady Collingwood that she fainted, and was obliged to leave the room. She had not heard from Lord Collingwood for some time which made it the more affecting.

It was on December 23rd, that Nelson's body preserved in spirits arrived at Greenwich, and forthwith the favourite toast in Yorks.h.i.+re was one perhaps peculiarly characteristic of the county, "Here's to the Hero who died for his country and came home in spirits!" On January 9th, his funeral took place at St Paul's Cathedral, and Stanhope, who attended it, must have felt a tightening of the throat as he realised how soon his small son was to face dangers such as had occasioned the death of the gallant man whom all England mourned. Moreover, Lord Collingwood had encouraged few delusions with regard to his own capability of aiding the career of the future mids.h.i.+pman. "If Parents were to see how many of their chicks go to ruin from being sent too early abroad they would not be so anxious about it," he wrote on one occasion, while on another he pointed out--"I need not say how glad I shall be to take all the care of William I can, and do him all the service in my power, but it is rather late in my day to be very useful to him as I shall be seeking to retire about the time he is launching into the world." Still more did he emphasise his inability to obtain promotion for those for whom he might have most desired it. On one occasion when Stanhope enclosed a letter from his friend Sir James Graham begging for the advancement of a young lieutenant, Collingwood replied, "I would gladly show every attention in my power to any friend of yours, but I have _no opportunity of advancing any officer beyond a mids.h.i.+pman sometimes_"; and four years after the Battle of Trafalgar he explained that he had still "some of the Lieutenants who were with me in action a few years since and no prospect of providing for them --I have little here but constant labour."

But what he could do in the way of protecting and befriending his little kinsman he was eager to accomplish, and his letters show how much anxious thought he devoted to the subject.

_Admiral Lord Collingwood to Walter Spencer-Stanhope._ _January 20th, 1806._

I shall be very glad to see your son William, and will take good care of him, and give him the best introduction to this service that I can.

I hope he has got on a little in mathematicks, because I have not a school master now in my s.h.i.+p--I had, but he got hurt in the _Sovereign_ and went home. Lord Barham tells me a s.h.i.+p is to be sent out to me soon--William might come out conveniently in her....

With respect to his equipment, do not burden him with baggage--if he takes care of it, it is but a miserable occupation, and if he does not it will be lost. Therefore, to keep him clean and above want is enough; a comfortable bed, that his health requires; two or three Blue jackets and waistcoats; his Navigation books that he has been taught from--whether it is Robinson's Elements, or Hamilton's Moore; a quadrant and a case of instruments. For his reading, you will give him such books as you think proper and are least voluminous--a history of England--of Rome--and Greece, with voyages or abridgment of them--but his baggage must be _light_--for the moment he enters a s.h.i.+p he must have no personal cares--all that relates to himself must be secondary--or nothing.

With respect to his supply of money or anything else, when he comes to me, he shall want for nothing. I will take care he is sufficiently provided and whatever expenses he has, I will tell you that you may repay me.