434 



NELSON 



NEMATHELMIA 



fortnight it was known that Villeneuve liiul pun- 

 to Cadiz, and Nels.ui wa ordered tu resume the 

 command. He did so on 25th September, and for 

 tin- next month kept a clime watch on the port, 

 while hi* fleet wax being gradually increased in 

 numbers. He wan especially desirous that he 

 should have sufficient force. \Vhat he wanted was 

 nut merely an honourable victory gained by an 

 inferior Meet, but the annihilation of the enemy. 

 Villeneuve was meantime urged by ponitive and 

 repeated onlent to put to ceo, and on 20th October, 

 having learned thai some of the Kngli-h ships hail 

 gone to Gibraltar. he reluctantly came out Of 

 French and Spanish ships comliined time were 

 with him thirty -three ; with Nelson there were 

 twenty-seven. 



At daybreak on the 21st the two fleets were in 

 prenence of each other otF Cape Trafalgar, and 

 N'elon, who Heveral days before hail given out 

 and explaineil hi- plan of attack, at once made the 

 signal to bear up towards the enemy. The wind 

 was very light, and it was noon before the lee 

 division of the Meet, under OaQfagWMd in the 

 Ki,y>il Sovereign, broke through the rear of the 

 Franco-Siianisii line. Nelson, with the other 

 division, hail reserved to himself the duty of over- 

 awing the van, till, convinced that they had no 

 immediate intention of turning to support their 

 rear, he bore up and threw himself on their centre. 

 As the Virtory passed astern of Villeneuve's flag- 

 ship, she fell foul of the Redoutahle of seventy- 

 four guns, and her quarter-deck l>ecame exposed 

 to the musketry lire from the Redoutable'* tops. 

 Nelson, while standing speaking to Captain Hardy, 

 fell mortally wounded hy a shot on the left 

 shoulder, which, striking 'obliquely downwards, 

 passed through the Hpin<>. He was carried below, 

 and died some tlnee hours later, just as the battle 

 ended in the decisive victory of the English. The 

 enemy's fleet was annihilated. 



Nelson's body was brought home, and, after lying 

 in state at Greenwich, was interred with much 

 pomp in the crypt of st Paul's. In the cathedral 

 above a gorgeous monument has been erected to 

 his memory, and numerous others throughout the 

 land liear wit new to the deep feeling which his 

 splendid services awakened. 



Hi* Life by Clarke and H' Arthur (2 vols. 1809) 

 is written with more crvdulity thnn critical accuracy. 

 3outhey' f.moun Life (2 vol.) date* from 1813. The 

 belt record of Nelson's KTvioes in his Uuoatcht* and 

 Letter*, edited by Sir N. Harris Nicolas (7 vola. 8vo, 

 1844-46) ; there in a (election from the Letter* and Du- 

 patthe* (1886) and a Life (1X96) by the author of the 

 present article ; Capt A. T. Mahan's Life of him in datvd 

 1897. 8oe aU Jeaffreson's The Quern of A'aplc* </ 

 Lord Helton (1889), and Lady Hamilton and Lord 



lson ROBERT, was born in London on 22d 

 June 1650, a rich Turkey merchant's son, and, 

 after a brief space at St Paul's school, removed 

 with his widowed mother to Dryfield in Gloucester- 

 shire, where he was brought up by L)r George Hull. 

 In 1680, the year of his election to the Royal 

 Society, he set out with Halley on a twenty months' 

 tour in France and Italy, returning from Italy with 

 Lady Theophila l.ncv'l 1654-1705), a widow, and 

 teghtM t" the Karl of Herkeley, who in 1683 

 became hi* wife, and who mum after was converted 

 to i '.ith.ili. i-m by Cardinal Howard and Bossuet 

 Her ill health had taken them again to Italy at 

 the time of the Revolution: but Nelson was from 

 the lirst a ( |Muwive) Jacobite, and on his return to 

 ind in ir.'.il he joined the Nonjiiror*. He was 

 i veil bark into the KstaMished Church in 1710, 

 though he still would not join in the prayers for 

 Queen Anne ; and he died at Kensington on 16th 

 January 1714. A man whose whole life wan 



devoted to doing good, one of the earliest niemliers 

 of In.th the S.P.C.K. and S. P.G., the pious ' Robert 

 Nelson was the author of live devotional works, of 

 one of which, the festival* and fault ( 1703), 10,000 

 copies were sold in four and a half years. 



See the Lives by W. H. Teale (2 vola. 1H4O 4T>) and 

 C. F. Secretan (I860); alto Abbey 1 ! E v luh Chunk m 

 Uu EifikternU, Century ( now ed. 1887). 



Xelson River issues from the north end of 

 Lake Winnipeg in Canada, and, after a north- 

 easterly course of 400 miles through Keewutin, 

 falls into Hudson Bay. It discharges an enormous 

 quantity of water, and is navigable for 127 miles 

 from its mouth, though only some 70 or 80 miles 

 for large steamers. For the railway from \Vinni- 

 |>eg, see HfDsoN BAY. 



Ncllllllho (\f/iiiHltiiim), a genus of aquatic 

 plants included by some iHitanists in the natural 

 order Nymplneacejr (q.v.); but by others con- 

 stituted into an order, Nelumbiacea?, differing in 

 the want of albumen in the seed, and in the distinct 

 carpels, which are buried in the cavities of a huge 

 tleshy receptacle. The flowers and leaves are 

 very similar to those of water-lilies. The species 

 are few, and are found in the warm parts of .\-ia, 

 in the north of Africa, and in North America. 

 They are all distinguished by the beauty of their 

 flowers. A', speciomim is the Egyptian Bean of 

 Pythagoras, the Lotus and Tamara of the Hindus, 

 and the Lien-lloa of the Chinese. Bv the ancients 

 it was regarded as the emblem of fertility; with 

 it the Egyptians decorated the heads of their 

 idols Isis and Osiris. The Hindus hold it SUCH -d. 

 ami with them it is the floating shell of Vishnu 

 and the throne of Brahma. The Tibetans em- 

 lielli.-hed their temples and altars with it. It is 

 also much esteemeil and cultivati-d in China and 

 elsewhere in the East for it seeds, roots, leaf- 

 stalks, and flower-stalks, all of which are eaten. 

 It has been used as food by the Egyptians t>.,m 

 remote antiquity. The seeds are in size and shape 

 like acorns, with a taste more delicate than that 

 of almond-. The 

 root contains 

 much starch, 

 and a kind of 

 arrowroot may 

 be obtained 

 from it ; and 

 powdered it 

 makes excellent 

 soup with milk 

 or water. Great 

 quantities are 

 pickled with salt 

 and vinegar, and 

 eaten with rice. 

 The flowers are 

 generally rose- 

 coloured.Keldom 

 white. The 

 ancient Egyp- 

 tian mode of 

 sowing this 

 plant, by encloe- 



throwing it into the water, is practised at the 

 present day in India. N. liitcum IN a North Amer- 

 ican species, with yellow flowers, extending almost 

 as far north as Philadelphia. The farinaceous 

 roots are agreeable when lioilcd. 



\rmal lu-lmi;i. or NKMATHKLMINTHKS (Cr. 

 nemti, 'a thread,' and helmins, 'an intestinal 

 worm '), a general name applied to the thread- 

 worms or nematodes, such as Ascaris (q.v.), Guinea- 

 tcorm (q.v.), Trichina ( q.v.), to the somewhat distinct 



