Memoirs of Emma, lady Hamilton, the friend of Lord Nelson and the court of Naples; Read Online Free PDF

lofty position on the steep Sussex Downs it commands a prospect of Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Here this erring and struggling girl, for a brief space, it may be in 1781, became the mistress of the mansion and its roystering owner, both Nimrod and Macaroni. Here she " witched the world with noble horsemanship," for she was always a fearless rider. Here, among rakes, she could not rest, as she sighed for the artistic admiration which her tableau vivant in the Adelphi had already aroused among clever Bohemians. Here, perhaps in despair, she became so reckless and capricious,

    so hopeless of that peace of mind and happy innocence which, ten years later, she joyfully assured Romney had been restored to her by marriage, that she was ejected and cast adrift at the very moment when she found herself soon to become a mother. That she was " a girl in reall distres " for the first time (and not, as has often been presumed, for the second) will be shown when we come to " little Emma," and it is here evidenced by her entreaty that Greville would spare her mother any knowledge of this fresh and crushing blow.
    At Up Park, most probably, Greville had first met her in the autumn of 1781, on one of those shooting-parties in great houses which he always frequented more from fashion than amusement. She had doubtless contrasted him with Sir Harry's stupid and commonplace acquaintances. Greville always took real interest in people who interested him at all, and at least he never acted below his professions. He was nobly bred, considerate, and composed; he was good-looking, prudent, and ever liberal—in advice. No wonder that his condescension seemed ideal to this girl of sixteen, who had lost yet coveted self-respect; who had already suffered from degrading experience, and yet had ever " felt something of virtue " in her " mind." He had afterwards (as his letter will show) befriended and scolded her headstrong sallies, though his warnings must have passed unheeded. On her retirement in disgrace and despair to her loving grandmother at Hawarden, he doubtless gave her the franked and addressed papers enabling her to communicate with him should need compel her. Just as evidently, she had written and been touched with the kind tone of his answer. It seems obvious also from Greville's coming reply that, as was her way, she would neither cajole Sir Harry into renewed favour nor be de-

    pendent on anything but sincere kindness. But at last she was trembling on a precipice from the brink of which she besought him to rescue her.
    To him and to Fetherstonehaugh she was known as Emily Hart; nor, in spite of Greville's advice, would she, or did she, change that name till her wedding. Whence it was assumed is unknown. In the Harvey family there lingered a tradition that " Emma Hart " was born at Southwell, near Biggleswade, and with her mother had served at Ickwell Bury, where she was first seen and painted by Romney. But this is wholly unfounded, though Romney appears to have painted portraits in that house, and it is curious that, about forty years ago, one Robert Hart—still living—was a butler in their service and professed to be in some way related to Lady Hamilton. A guess might be hazarded that " Hart" was derived from the musician of that name who visited Hamilton's house at Naples in 1786 as her old acquaintance. Not one of the parish registers offers any solution through the names of her kindred. The " Emily" became Emma through the artists and the poets, through Romney and Hayley.
    It is " Emly Hart's " pleading and pathetic note, then, that Charles Greville still holds in his fastidious hands on this winter morning. With a glance at his statues, specimens, and the repaired Venus, and possibly with a pang at the thought of the plight to which this " modern piece of virtu" was reduced, he sits down most deliberately to compose his answer. How deliberately, is shown by the fact that of this letter he kept a " pressed copy " done in the