2nd s. No 49., Dec. 6. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



445 



"That the ball," continues the narrative, "was in- 

 tended for Lord Nelson is doubtful, because when the aim 

 must have been taken, he was walking on the outer side, 

 concealed in a great measure from view by a much taller 

 and stouter man. Admitting also (which is very doubt- 

 ful) that the French seaman or marine, whose shot had 

 proved so fatal, had selected for his object, as the British 

 commander-in-chief, the best dressed officer of the two, 

 he would most probably have fixed upon Captain Hardy ; 

 or indeed, such, in spite of Dr. Beatty's print, was Lord 

 Nelson's habitual carelessness, upon any one of the Vic- 

 tory's lieutenants who might have been walking by the 

 side of him. Sergeant Seeker of the Marines, and two 

 seamen, who had come up on seeing the Admiral fall, 

 now, by Captain Hardy's direction, bore their revered and 

 much lamented chief to the cockpit." 



The scene of Nelson's mortal agony (which 

 lasted (luring three hours and a half), and which 

 has been depicted by the pens of Dr. Scott and 

 others, need not be transferred to your columns. 

 There is, however, one circumstance in reference 

 to the death of England's hero, which I hope I 

 may be permitted to offer for insertion in " N. & 

 Q.," as likely to be read with interest by those 

 who love to dwell on the stereotyped acts, the 

 cherished sentiments and sayings, of the "great" 

 that are gone. It is speculatively curious, and 

 may possibly be new to some of your readers. It 

 appears in the Dispatches and Letters, 8fc., as one 

 of the concluding statements of Dr. Beatty's nar- 

 rative : — 



" His Lordship had on several occasions told Captain 

 Hardy, that if he should fall in battle in a foreign climate, 

 he wished his body to be conveyed to England ; and that, 

 if his country should think proper to inter him at the 

 public expense, he wished to be buried in St. Paul's, as 

 well as that his monument should be erected tliere. He 

 explained his reasons for preferring St. Paul' s to West- 

 minster Abbey, which were rather curious ; he said that 

 he remembered hearing it stated as an old tradition when 

 he was a boj', that Westminster was built on a spot 

 where once existed ^ deep morass ; and he thought it 

 likely that the lapse of time would reduce the ground on 

 which it now stands to its primitive state of a swamp, 

 without leaving a trace of the Abbey. He added, that 

 his actual observations confirmed the probability of this 

 event. He also repeated to Captain Hardy several times 

 during the last two years of his life, ' Should I be killed. 

 Hardy, and my country not bury me, you know what to 

 do with me;' meaning that his body was to be laid 

 by the side of his father's in his native village of Burn- 

 ham Thorpe in Norfolk; and this, as has been before- 

 mentioned, he adverted to in his last moments." 



It was the heart-striking history of these " last 

 moments" which clouded the brilliant achieve- 

 ments of that eventful day, — the news at which 

 every cheek grew pale, and every heart was faint 

 — England's darling hero was no more — sacri- 

 ficed in the moment of victory — a willing victim 

 at the shrine of her glory. But dear to her was 

 glory, purchased with such blood as his. The 

 hand that had wreathed the laurel must plant the 

 cypress ! " The victory was turned that day into 

 mourning unto all the people." All that a be- 

 reaved country could do, England did, and fit- 



tingly, to testify her sorrow : with solemn and 

 gorgeous pomp she bore her lamented chief to that 

 wished-for place of repose, lavishing the honours 

 she had not yet bestowed, to " make his name 

 great in Israel ; " never had those time-honoured 

 towers pealed forth a funeral note which so bowed 

 the head and heart of the nation as the knell 

 of her slain Nelson. A king covered his face, 

 princes mourned and followed him, a grateful 

 people wept over his hier ; and well might Eng- 

 land smite the breast in her anguish, for where in 

 her hour of need could she hope " to look upon 

 his like again ? " Yet it was reserved for no dis- 

 tant generation to know that, when Israel's peace 

 should be threatened, a Gideon might again be 

 found at the " winepress," or a David conae forth 

 from the " fold." F. Phillott. 



A Trafalgar Veteran. — Perhaps it may interest 

 some of your readers to know that there is now 

 living at Orford, in Suffolk, a man of the name 

 of Mannell, who was with Nelson at the battle of 

 Trafalgar, and assisted in carrying him down to 

 the cabin of the " Victory." Eremite. 



GENERAIi LITERABT INDEX : PENAL LAWS : TEST 

 LAWS : TOLERATION. 



(^Continued from 2"'' S. ii. 24.) 



" The Trial and Examination of a late Libel, intitled 

 < A new Test of the Church of England's Loyalty ; ' with 

 some Keflections upon the additional Libel, intitled ' An 

 Instance of the Church of England's Loyalty.' 1687." 



This and the tracts herein referred to will be 

 found in the ninth volume of the Sumers Tracts. 



" Samuel, Lord Bishop of Oxford, his celebrated Rea- 

 sons for Abrogating the Test and Notions of Idolatry An- 

 swered by Samuel, Archdeacon of Canterbury. By John 

 Phillips, nephew to John Milton. 1688. 4to." 



In the Somers Tracts, vol. ix., where it is as- 

 cribed to Burnet, as well as the following tract : 



"An Enquiry into the Reasons for abrogating the 

 Test imposed on all Members of Parliament, Offered by 

 Sa. Ox on." 



" Vox Cleri pro Rege ; or the Rights of the Imperial 

 Sovereignty of the Crown of England Vindicated, in 

 reply to a late Pamphlet pretending to answer a Book 

 entitled ' The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the 

 Church of England, concerning the King's Prerogative in 

 dispensing with Penal Laws.' In a Letter to a Friend. 

 1688. 4to." 



" The Project for repealing the Penal Laws and Tests, 

 with the honourable Means used to effect it. Being a 

 Preface to a Treatise concerning the Penal Laws and 

 Tests. 1688." 



" Account of Sir Edward Hale's Case. By Sir Edward 

 Herbert. London, 1688. 4to." 



It will be found In the second volume of the 

 Collection of State Trials, 1735. 



" The Trial of Sir Edward Hales, Bart., for neglecting 

 to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, with his 



