XX111 



It was, however, elucidated in the course of the correspondence 

 that my memory was at fault when I stated that my lather per- 

 sonally found the brick. It seems, as indeed I now recollect, that 

 failing to find it he went with me and the head master into the school- 

 room and asked if any of the boys knew of this brick. One little boy 

 replied that he did, and, coming into the yard, pointed out the initials 

 in the broken wall by the light of a lantern. To this boy my father 

 gave a tip of half-a-crown. 



To these explanations the critic of the event, whose remarks had 

 meanwhile been copied into sundry other papers, made no reply, and 

 so matters stood until, on August 22 and 24, 1895, I received two letters 

 from Mr. Gerard J. Buxton, of Icklingham, Mildenhall. In these 

 letters he informs me that this little boy was his late brother, a great 

 admirer of Nelson, and that he well remembers his leaving the school- 

 room to point out the brick to my father, and his delight at receiving 

 the half-crown, although, until Mr. Buxton read the correspondence all 

 these years afterwards, he had no knowledge of the identity of the 

 donor. He says further : ' I am perfectly convinced that the H. N. 

 was not cut on the brick during the time I was at the Paston 

 School, from 1880 to 1884. At that time it had every appearance of 

 being thoroughly " weathered." Had it been the result of a school- 

 boy's " lark," as suggested, I should have been among the first to have 

 known it.' 



It seems to me that this testimony, taken in conjunction with that 

 of my father's memory, goes far to establish the genuineness of this 

 relic. Also the latter seems to prove that if these initials were forged, 

 that forgery was executed over eighty years ago. 



If, however, I am right upon this point as I believe on another I 

 and my informant, old Canham, are presumably wrong. I stated on 

 my own authority, which was based upon local tradition, that ' in or 

 about the year 1804 Mrs. Bolton, who was Nelson's sister, and her 

 husband hired Bradenham ' ; and, on that of Canham, that it was part of 

 his duty 'from time to time to take out the coat in which he (i.e. 

 Nelson) was killed at -Trafalgar, and to air it on the lavender bushes 

 that grow by the kitchen garden railings.' Also I said that after Nelson's 

 death ' all his sea-going belongings were sent to Bradenham.' 



Now, in the autumn of 1905, at the time of the Nelson Centenary 

 Mrs. Nelson-Ward, wife of the last surviving son of Horatia, kindly 

 wrote to me enclosing various documents, which are too long to print 

 here, that seem to prove beyond doubt that the Boltons did not move 



