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 His body was brought home in his flagship and laid to rest in St Paul’s. He is commemorated in London by the monument in Trafalgar Square, completed in 1849 with a colossal statue by E. H. Baily, and surrounded by Landseer’s bronze lions, added in 1867.

In estimating the character of Nelson, and his achievements, there are some elements which must be allowed for more fully than has always been the case. He was, to begin with, the least English of great Englishmen. He had the excitability, the vanity, the desire for approbation without much delicacy as to the quarter from which it came, which the average Englishman of Nelson’s time, his judgment obscured by the effects of centuries of racial rivalry culminating in the Napoleonic wars, was wont to attribute to Frenchmen. Where there is vanity there is the capacity for spite and envy. Nor was Nelson altogether free from these unpleasant faults. But in the main his desire to be liked combined with a natural kindness of disposition to make him appeal frankly to the goodwill of those about him. He won to a very great extent the affection he valued, and that from men so widely different in character as Lord Minto and the simple-hearted seamen among whom he passed the best part of his life. He could be cruel when his emotions were aroused by evil influences, with the downright cruelty he displayed at Naples, or the more subtle form of hardness in his conduct to his wife, when his duty to her stood in the way of his love for Emma Hamilton. But they were few to whom the evil side of his nature was shown, while the captains and seamen for whom he did much to make a hard duty more tolerable were to be counted by the thousand.

As a commander he belonged to the race of Pyrrhus and the prince of Condé—the fighters of battles. His victories were won at the head of a force which had been brought to a high level of efficiency by three generations of predecessors, against enemies who had been, as in the case of the French, disorganized by a social revolution which had ruined their discipline, who were inexperienced as the Danes were, or who, as in the case of the Spaniards, were sunk in a moral and intellectual decadence. But he estimated the vices of his opponents with full insight. Wielding a fine instrument, and confronted by inferior enemies, he was entitled to dare much, and it is a proof of his sagacity that he saw how far he could dare, caring but little for the bulk of the force in front of him, and looking to the spirit. Above all, he had the power to inspire the enthusiasm he felt, and to make men act above themselves because he was there, and because they found a joy in pleasing him. Among all the warriors of his generation Napoleon alone was a greater master of the souls of men, and Blücher alone came near him.

Nelson had no children by his wife. His daughter Horatia, by Lady Hamilton, became the wife of the Rev. Philip Ward, and died in 1881. In November 1805, in recognition of Nelson’s great services to his country, his brother William (1757–1835) was created Earl Nelson of Trafalgar, an annuity of £5000 being attached to the title. When William died without sons in February 1835 his only daughter Charlotte Mary (1787–1873), wife of Samuel Hood, 2nd Baron Bridport (1788–1868), became duchess of Bronté, while, according to the remainder, his English titles passed to his nephew Thomas Bolton (1786–1835), who became 2nd Earl Nelson. Bolton, who took the name of Nelson, was succeeded as 3rd Earl Nelson in November 1835 by his son Horatio (b. 1823). The duchy of Bronté was in 1910 held by Baroness Bridport’s grandson, Arthur Wellington Nelson Hood, 2nd Viscount Bridport (b. 1839).

NELSON, ROBERT (1656–1715), English philanthropist and religious writer, son of John Nelson, a London merchant, was born on the 22nd of June 1656, and was educated as the private pupil of George Bull, afterwards bishop of St David’s. Having inherited a considerable fortune from his father, he followed no profession. About 1680 he went abroad and spent much time on the continent of Europe till 1691, when he settled at Blackheath. For many years he was an intimate friend and correspondent of Archbishop Tillotson, though not in agreement with his views; and he was also on terms of friendship with the astronomer Halley and other men of science. Nelson’s sympathies were with the Jacobites; and after his return to England he associated himself with the nonjurors, under whose influence he produced several of his writings on religious subjects. He was an active supporter of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and similar associations, and he used his influence largely in the establishment of charity schools and the building of churches in London. In 1687 he had published a controversial work against transubstantiation, and in 1704 appeared his Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England, which obtained a remarkable popularity lasting till the middle of the 19th century. Within five years of its publication ten thousand copies of the Companion were printed, and thirty-six editions appeared in a hundred and twenty years. After the death of Bishop Bull in 1710 Nelson wrote his biography, which was published three years later; and he was also the author of many other devotional and controversial works. He died in January