Description

Originally published in 1913, this work contains a wealth of information on the domestic life of one of Britain's most famous military leaders, Admiral Horatio Nelson. The following passage is taken from its foreword: 'THERE is little need for a new life of Nelson this book is no such thing. Instead, it deals with perhaps the one aspect of Nelson's life that has met with neglect from his biographers the domestic aspect, the years he spent in England. The attempt has been made here to trace all the English allusions in his immense correspondence, to follow him to the places that he knew and visited in the small island where he was born. Such a history of his life is bound to be limited in scope, unillumined by his victories, by his most daring and characteristic actions. Yet in some sort it is hoped that this quiet chronicle may have in it some quality that is necessarily obscured by the ""drum and trumpet"" history. It is by means of the homely and the everyday that we get at the heart of our hero. In battle he was inspired, in love all his characteristics were exaggerated and emphasised almost to the point of distortion but there were many quiet years, many peaceful pursuits in Nelson's life when neither battle nor the beloved woman was the principal motive of his existence; when he, like the rest of us, was just living his life from day to day, pleased and grieved by little things.'