344 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2od S. X. Nov. 3. 'GO. 



writer in Blachwood states tloat Horatia, after her 

 mother's death, was taken to Nelson's sister, Mrs. 

 Matcham. 



" It i3 with her introduction to Romney that the pub- 

 lic interest of Lad\- Hamilton's life commences. It is 

 impossible to gaze on the face so familiar to every one, and 

 ivhich owes its immortalitj- to his pencil, without feelings 

 of deep emotion. The charm consists not in beautj' of 

 feature, marvellous though that beauty is. There beams 

 in those e^'es, and. plaj-s around those lips, the power of 

 fascination, which, a few years later, brought princes, 

 statesmen, and heroes to worship at her feet. 



" Marvellous and inscrutable are the wa^-s by which 

 * Providence doth shape our ends ! ' Had that face been 

 less beautiful, had the heart of its possessor been less 

 brave and faithful, had she lacked courage or prompti- 

 tude, — or, strange as it raaj' sound, had she been less 

 frail, had she possessed fewer virtues or fewer faults, — 

 the whole course of History might have been changed, 

 and the Nile, and even Trafalgar, have had no place in 

 the Annals of England. 



" That Romney, like his friend Hajdey, the biographer 

 of Cowper, conceived a romantic attachment to the beau- 

 tiful subject of his pencil, is abundantly shown b%' his 

 letters. 'The Divine Lady,' as he calls her, was the ob- 

 ject of sentimental and distant adoration, and never did 

 devout worshipper pay more precious homage at the 

 shrine of his idol. He painted as many as twenty-three 

 pictures of her. 



" The following is a list of the Pictures painted by 

 Eomney from Lady Hamilton, and given in J. Romney's 

 Life of the Painter: — L 'Nature,' 1782 — now in the 

 possession of Mr. Fawkes of Farnely; 2. Circe, painted 

 about the same time — unfinished; 3. Iphigenia; 4. St. 

 Clecilia; 5. Bacchante — sent to Sir VV. Hamilton at 

 Naples, and lost at sea ; 6. Alope ; 7. The Spinstress ; 8. 

 Cassandra — Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery; 9. Tliree- 

 quarters, Straw-hat, ' Emma ' — Mr. Crawford ; 10. Bac- 

 chante — Sir J. Leicester — figure painted in afterwards; 

 11. Half-length, sent to Naples; 12. Do. given to her 

 mother; 13, 14. Calypso and Magdalen — Prince of 

 Wales; 15, 16, 17. Joan of Arc, Pythian Priestess, and 

 Cassandra — unfinished; 18. Half-length, Reading, light 

 reflected on the face — Haj'Iey; 19. Three-quarters, 1792; 

 20, 21, 22. Three-quarters, side face. Two other un- 

 finished heads. 



" In addition to this list, there is a very beautiful 

 figure called ' The Seamstress,' which, we believe, was 

 painted from Lady Hamilton. She was also the original 

 of Reynolds' celebrated ' Bacchante ' ; and if our memory 

 serves us correctly, of two remarkably fine full-lengths 

 bvHopner, 'The Comic Muse' and 'A Magdalen,' be- 

 longing to the Marquess of Hertford at Ragley. There is 

 a magnificent full-length, by Lawrence, in the National 

 Callery of Scotland, and a very lovely chalk head b}' the 

 ■aSLme artist, signed 'Emma,' in the British Museum." * 



There is a portrait of Lady H. omitted in the 

 foregoing list, viz. a miniature ^executed by Dunne, 

 I think,) which she sent to her former mistress, 

 Mrs. Thomas, and which is still in the possession 

 of that lady's family. 



Perhaps some of your correspondents could add 

 to this list, anjj, besides, give the present locale of 

 the above when not mentioned ? One of Rom- 

 ney's portraits of Lady H., I may add, is in the 

 |>ossession of Lord De Tabley. 



* Bluckicoocf. 



" We know few characters," says the excellent writer 

 in Blackwood, "of which it is so difficult to form a just 

 and impartial estimate as that of Ladj' Hamilton. Hap- 

 pily it is not our duty to mete out "reward or punishment. 

 Few, if any, have ever been exposed to such dangers and 

 such temptations. The most precious gifts of Providence, 

 bodilj' and mental, which were lavished upon her in pro- 

 fusion, were but so many additional snares in her path. 

 ' With all her faults,' says one who was hr no means dis- 

 posed to extenuate these faults, 'her goodness of heart is 

 undeniable. She was the frequent intercessor with Nel- 

 son for oifending sailors; and in every vicissitude of her 

 fortune she manifested the warmest affection for her 

 mother, and showed the greatest kindness to a host of 

 discreditable relations.'* Her husband, with his dying 

 breath, bore witness that, during ' the ten years of their 

 happy union, she had never in thought, word, or deed, 

 offended him.' 



" The nature of her intimacy with Nelson will pro- 

 babb' remain for ever an enigma. The more closely the 

 evidence is examined, the more perplexing does the in- 

 quiry become. Confident assertion in this, as in most 

 other cases, is confined almost exclusivel}' to those who 

 know least of the subject. There cannot be a stronger 

 proof of this difficulty than that which is derived from 

 the fact, that the two latest biographers of Nelson, both 

 of whom have devoted infinite labour to the inquiry, have 

 arrived at diametricallj^ opposite conclusions. Dr. Petti- 

 grew is convinced that Horatia was the daughter of Lady 

 Hamilton \, and Sir Harris Nicolas is equally convinced 

 that she was not. J Those who were most likely to be 

 well-informed upon the subject. Lord St. Vincent, Hard}\ 

 Dr. Scott, his confidential friend and adviser Mr. Hasle- 

 wood, and, we may add, the several members of his own 

 family, seem to have considered Nelson's attachment to 

 Lady Hamilton purely Platonic. The evidence in sup- 

 port of this view of the case is collected in the seventh 

 volume of the Nelson Despatches, pp. 369. to 390." 



The writer in Blackwood, however, feels himself 

 " compelled reluctantly" to take the generally re- 

 ceived view of the matter. At the same time, he 

 vindicates her memory from the calumnies con- 

 nected with Graham's exhibition, Romney, and 

 Carracciolo. In the March ISTumber oi Blackwood, 

 the same writer vindicates Nelson's memory with 

 regard to Carracciolo. EiRiONN.-i.cH. 



' f£iiruix ^atti. 



Druse Magic or Table-turning. — As a coun- 

 terpart to the extraordinay proceedings of Mr. 

 Home at Mr. Milner Gibson's house, described 

 in a recent number of the Conihill Magazine, I 

 make the following extract from Col. Churchill's 

 Mount Lebanon (i. 1 64.) : — 



" Sheik Bechir is one of the best informed of the Druse 

 sheiks, and has acquired a store of history and literature, 

 which makes his conversation in every waj' superior. 

 He has for some years devoted his time, singular as it 

 may appear, to the cultivation of magic [table-turning], 

 and the stories he relates of his interviews with immate- 

 rial beings are novel and startling. At times he will 



* Nelson Despatches, vol. vii. p. 390. 

 t Memob-s of Nelson, vol. ii. p. 655. 

 X Nelson Despatches, vol. vii. pp. 309. 393. 



