Beschreibung:

Horatio, Viscount Nelson
Autograph letter signed ("Nelson & Bronte"), to Emma Hamilton ("My dear Lady Hamilton"),
on the depth of his love for her, complaining at the delay in setting forth ("...I am quite vexed not to have orders for compleating the San Josef compliment of men, or to proceed to sea..."), dismissing his wife ("...She is a great fool and thank God You are not the least like her..."), and admitting his anxiety about her pregnancy by reference to "Mr Thomson", whose wife is ostensibly in Hamilton's care ("...poor man he is very anxious and begs you will if she is not able, write a line just to comfort him he appears to me to feel very much her situation..."), 2 pages, folio, integral autograph address leaf, [HMS San Josef, Plymouth Dock,] 25 January 1801, near-complete impression of Nelson's red wax seal, postal stamp, seal tear, nicks at edges, remains of guard, some toning
"...where friendship is of so strong a cast as ours, it is no easy matter to shake it, mine is as fixed as mount Etna and as warm on the inside as that mountain..."
A PASSIONATE LETTER WRITTEN TO LADY HAMILTON IN THE FINAL DAYS OF HER PREGNANCY. Nelson had been recalled to active service at the beginning of 1801, taking command of the San Josef (a ship that Nelson himself had captured from the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St Vincent). He was to spend the next two months in port, preparing for the campaign that would culminate with the Battle of Copenhagen. His departure brought about a crisis in his personal life: it was at this point that he broke conclusively from his wife, whilst Lady Hamilton was heavily pregnant with his child. The couple avoided writing directly of Emma's pregnancy through the fictional "Mr Thomson", supposedly one of Nelson's crew, whose wife was in Emma Hamilton's care. Nelson wrote a torrent of letters to Emma Hamilton over these weeks, finding it very difficult to be apart from his lover as they became parents. Their daughter, Horatia, was born at Emma Hamilton's home in Piccadilly on 29 January. 
LITERATURE:Nelson's Letters to Lady Hamilton and Related Documents, ed. M. Czisnik (2020), no. 62
PROVENANCE:Thomas Joseph Pettigrew; Edwin Wolf, II; Christie's, London, 21 June 1989, lot 237