Add MS 43504

PERSONAL METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL KEPT BY VICE-ADMIRAL HORATIO, VISCOUNT NELSON, as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, from 14 May until Sunday, 20 Oct. 1805, the eve of Trafalgar. Autograph. The MS. consists of an exercise-book, containing twenty-four paper folios, the first thirteen being ruled into vertical columns (in red ink) and provided with appropriate headings (in black ink) by a subordinate (apparently Nelson's official secretary, John Scott) who also wrote 'State of the Weather by the Barometer 1805' at the commencement of f. I; the final eleven folios were originally left blank. The entries in Nelson's handwriting (ff. 1-10 only) begin at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, 14 May and continue until 8 p.m. on Sunday, 20 Oct., recording the week-day, the date, the time and reading of the barometer, together with the force and direction of the wind, etc. Nelson endeavoured to allot a separate folio to the entries for each week, beginning usually on Sunday or on Monday, and also divided up the notations into a separate compartment for each day by means of roughly drawn transverse lines. The entries are not continuous, chiefly owing to the fact that the journal was kept only whilst its compiler was at sea, although the first gap in the barometric readings occurs when Nelson was actually under sail in the West Indies. There are no entries from 8-12 June, that for Friday, 7 June stating ' off Trinidada This day took down the Barometer and did not get it up until off Barbuda standing to the Northward on June 13th 1805' (f. 2b). There are no readings for 20 and 21 July. The entry in the journal for 19 July 1 1-2

states 'At Gibraltar 20 & 21st sail[e]d morning of the 22nd'; this was the occasion on which, to quote from Add. MS. 34968 (Nelson's private autograph Diary for this period, which also contains weather observations and notes of the distance sailed during the pursuit of Villeneuve similar to those in the present volume, but lacks barometric readings), he 'went on Shore for the first time since June 16th 1803' (f. 57). There is a complete break in the journal (between ff. 7 and 8) from Sunday 18 Aug., when Nelson anchored at Spithead (cf. Add. MS. 34968, f. 66b), until Tuesday, 17 Sept. when the journal records 'off the Dodman put up the Barometer', although Nelson had rejoined H.M.S. 'Victory' on 14 Sept. and weighed anchor on 15 Sept. (cf. the volume of the Diary for the period 13 Sept.-21 Oct., which is now preserved with Nelson's will in the Principal Probate Registry at Somerset House, except for two missing folios, one of which, viz. that containing notes for Sunday, 20 Oct., is now bound up with MS. 9642 in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich). Nelson has also recorded the distance in miles sailed each day during his pursuit of Villeneuve from the Straits of Gibraltar to the West Indies and back to Cape St Vincent, which began on 11 May, three days before the commencement of this journal, and finished (according to Nelson's entries) on Wednesday, 17 July (f. 5 b); similar entries for the mileage sailed on 12 and 13 May occur also in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich MS. 48 MS. 9421. He has also noted on arrival in the West Indies the average daily mileage sailed following the entry for Tuesday, 4 June (f. 2b). The entries from Friday, 26 July until Saturday, 10 Aug. (ffn. 6-7b) are also numbered from 1-16: at f. 7b are notes of soundings taken on 13 and 14 Aug. previous to arriving off Ushant on 15 Aug. Several errors occur. His initial entry instead of being 14 May 1805 is 14 May 1785: a possible explanation is the fact that at this time of great emotional stress when his disturbed thoughts were directed towards the West Indies, he remembered that it was there that he had first met his wife in March 1785 and had deliberately returned to visit her during the first week of May 1785; his entry for 14 May in the private Diary is, however, correctly dated and contains a cryptic note that he wrote to Lady Hamilton (Add. MS. 34968, f. 27b). Moreover, at the end Of f. 3 (Thursday, 20 June) he turned over two leaves of the book instead of one and entered the readings for Friday, 21 June and Saturday, 22 June at the beginning Of f. 4b, then realised his mistake, cancelled out these entries, rewrote them on f. 3b, and thereafter proceeded normally. Also, amongst the entries covering the last few days of his approach to England for his final visit, Friday, 16 Aug. is wrongly dated the 17th, Sunday the 18th is wrongly give as 'Saturday' the 18th', 16 July is entered as the 18th, and 16 Oct. as the 6th. Lastly, on Friday, 11 Oct. the time (presumably 8 p.m.) at which the third reading was taken has not been noted. The entries in this MS. form a continuation to those for 1 Sept. 1804- 13 May 1805 in a volume, similar in format to the present MS. and formerly preserved in Trafalgar House, near Salisbury, now in the possession of the

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (numbered 48 MS. 9421), where there is also an earlier volume covering the period 10 Sept.-23 Oct. 1803 (numbered 37 MS. 1 745), Presented by Miss Mary Anne Farmar, of Dorking, and said to have formerly belonged to Capt. F. E. Seymour, R.N. (d. 1866); cf. National Maritime Museum, Report of the Trustees 1937-1938, p. 23. Another and similar volume, for the period Monday, 24 Oct. 1803-Thursday, 31 Aug. 1804 (which in Dec. 1844 passed through the hands of both 'William Young of Wells', and of Henry G. Girdlestone, Rector of Landford, co. Wilts., a nephew of Nelson by marriage) was sold by Lord Harmsworth at Sotheby's 31 May 1960 (sale-cat., lot 25), and again at Sotheby's, 18 May 1965, lot 495. The volume (or volumes) which should cover the period from 20 May until 9 Sept. 1803 remains untraced. On ff. '3b-14 of the present MS. is a note in a contemporary hand of payments, dated 1807-1810, from 'The residuary Estate of Lord Viscount Nelson' to his youngest sister Catherine, wife of George Matcham of Ashfold Lodge, Slaugham, co. Suss. Paper; ff. ii+14 (followed by 10 blank folios). Quarto. A.D. 1805 (watermark 1801). F. i bears the number 3039 attached to the MS. while in the possession of the Royal United Service Museum. F. ii comprises a typewritten account of the history of the MS., signed and dated July 1933, by Florence Ellery May Eyre-Matcham, great-great-granddaughter of Mrs Catherine Matcham. The volume, part of Nelson's residuary bequest to his sister, Mrs Matcham, was lent, before 1905, by her grandson, William Eyre- Matcham, of Newhouse, co. Wilts, to the Royal United Service Museum (cf. Catalogue ofthe Exhibition of Nelson Relics in Commemoration ofthe Battle of Trafalgar, 1905, p. 25, and Official Catalogue of the Royal United Service Museum, 8th ed., 1932, no. 3039), and remained there until 1933, when it was purchased from the Eyre-Matcham family by the donor, Charles Cheers Wakefield, Baron and (1934) Viscount Wakefield. Cf. also Brit. Mus. Quart., viii, 1933-1934, pp. 78-79 and pl. xxviii (reproducing f. 10) and The Times, 17 Oct. 1933, p. 11. Presented by Lord Wakefield, through the Rt. Hon. James Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., Prime Minister.