One of history’s greatest love stories involved one of naval history’s greatest icons—we refer, of course, to the legendary romance between Horatio Nelson and Emma, Lady Hamilton. It was the kind of sizzling affair that burns everything in its path; wrecked marriage, a love child, living in sin—all the elements of juicy scandal were there even by today’s jaded standards, so one can easily imagine how the Nelson-Hamilton thing must have set tongues wagging in the early 1800s. The tale has oft been told of the stunningly beautiful blacksmith’s daughter who rose through the ranks of society in rather flamboyant and promiscuous fashion, of how Nelson upon meeting her became smitten, as so many others had before, and how they fell hopelessly, madly in love, and a fiery, torrid—yes, well, that will be quite enough of that, quite enough indeed. . .
At any rate, it’s natural that such intense affection for one another would manifest itself in special gifts, such as these two unique artifacts of the Nelson-Hamilton affair currently in the private collection of a longtime Naval Institute member. As a modest little trinket to remember him by, Nelson gave Lady Hamilton a dazzling diamond-covered silver brooch, shaped like an anchor and backed by his initials. For her part, Emma gave Horatio this wood-framed mirror, suggestive of a porthole, to hang in his captain’s cabin. It was there with him in HMS Victory on that fateful October day in 1805 when Nelson stepped from his quarters into the pages of history, achieving his most momentous triumph, and meeting his maker, at the Battle of Trafalgar. This mirror, then, was probably the very last one Nelson ever gazed into. And the woman who had given it to him, the great love of his life? She was not even allowed to attend his funeral. But what would a doomed love story be without a tragic ending? Heathcliff and Catherine had nothing on these two.
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