Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/458

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 8. III. OCT., 1917.

part of her time with his father, who fre- quently wintered at Bath, and from there she wrote in 1797 :

" Mrs. Hoste thanks you very much for my letters. She seldom gets any but very old ones from her son. Mr. Hoste is here ; he called last week twice and drank tea."

In 1 800 Horatio Nelson (now Baron Nelson of the Nile) returned to England, accom- panied by Sir William and Lady Hamilton. The Hamiltons took up their residence in London, and, soon after their introduction to the admiral's brother and sisters, estab- lished very friendly relations with them, and frequently received them on visits to their house in Piccadilly.

William Nelson was at that time hoping that his brother would procure him " Church preferment," and, possibly with that idea, had taken the degree of D.D. In 1801 his wife, in a letter to Lady Hamilton, said :

" Mr. Boltoii has just called upon the Doctor, and they are gone together to Swaft'ham Fair to buy a horse. Next Wednesday we go there for the coursing ball ; Mrs. Yonge would be dis- appointed if we did not go. Another year I hope Charlotte will show off at the ball."

Susanna, the eldest of the Nelson sisters, had been living for some time near Hil- borough at Cranwich, with her husband, Thomas Bolton, and their family, consisting of five daughters and a son, Thomas, afterwards second Earl Nelson.

The friendship with the Yonges runs through all the family letters ; thus on May 8, 1802, Dr. Nelson was at Burnham Thorpe to make arrangements for the funeral of his father (who had died at Bath on April 25, aged 78), and thus wrote to the admiral :

I am very much concerned to find you continue so unwell .... The funeral will be on Tuesday morning .... We have sunk ye grave in the chancel alongside our mother's. I can't say but ye sight of this place brings many pleasant things to remembrance, but then, that is alloyed by ye reflection of what I am here for ; and perhaps for the last time at least for the last time one can call it Home. . . .1 am glad the boys are gone to school, but I am ashamed that Horace

should have any debts, however trifling As

for William Yonge, he will ruin his father if he

goes on so! To be sure, thirty shillings is

nothing in itself, but for such a youngster as Horace ! "

" Burnham, 12th May.

" My dear brother, We performed the last sad offices. .. .yesterday amidst ye greatest number of people ever assembled here.... The bearers were Rev. Archdeacon Yonge, Mr, Hoste Mr. Preedy, Mr. Crowe, S nr, Mr. Weatherheadi

Mr. Crowe, J" The archdeacon walked over

the house and premises, and said lie seldom saw

better. .. .Mr. Bolton and I go home in the morning, and he will come to ye sale."*

Writing from Cranwich to Lady Hamilton in July, 1804, Mrs. Bolton described "the Archdeacon and his family " as still at Yarmouth, " but Mr. Johnson is at S waff- ham, taking his troop to the play." On Nov. 1 1 she wrote :

" You will soon have Dr. and Mrs. Nelson with, you. . . .Susanna [her daughter] has not returned from Swaffham, where she went to the ball last night. ..."

In the August of 1805 the war seems to have depressed every one, for Mrs. Bolton wrote to Lady Hamilton :

" Here is the victorious first of August, and nothing done in Norfolk ! The ladies did vote for a ball, and was in hopes that if Dr. and Mrs. Nelson was in the county they would have been successful ; but no such thing."

Dr. William Nelson had been made a prebendary at Canterbury, where he had a house, and in 1805 gave the living of Hilborough to his brother-in-law Archdeacoa Yonge.

The 21st of October brought the family into mourning with the battle of Trafalgar, bitter grief for the hero's sisters, an earldom for "the Doctor," the title of Viscount Merton for " young Horace," and the great public funeral for Horatio Nelson himself. He was followed by " the Earl " and his son as chief mourners," his sisters' husbands and their sons, and by Archdeacon Yonge and Mr. Hoste in the long procession.

" Eliza Yonge " was the beauty of the arch- deacon's family, and in 1806 she numbered the Rev. Robert Rolfe (widower) among her admirers, and he seems to have taken her rejection of his suit very ill. " Surely," wrote Mrs. Bolton to Lady Hamilton, " Eliza Yonge has not acted well by Mr. Rolfe I She ought to have known her own mind sooner I ....Susanna was at Swaffham yesterday, and found Charlotte Yonge is off to spend a month with her aunt, the Countess. .. .Mrs. Denys Yonge will be in town for a fortnight."

Later she said :

" I find Charlotte Yonge 4s to go down to- Suffolk with the Earl and Countess. She will be first favourite, as Eliza is too handsome."

The letter goes on to describe the " coursing ball at Swaffham," attended by Lord Merton. " The ball lasted until three o'clock." Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Comyns, Eliza, and Susanna Bolton, all went in a carriage ; Lady Bolton, Becca, and Anne Girdlestone occiipied a postchaise, while Tom Bolton and Mr. King rode on horseback.

Bolton, Mr. Rolfe, Mr. Yonge, and others.
 * Nine mourning rings were given to . Mr