CHAPTER VIII

Naval and military autographs

There are some autograph collectors who limit their sphere of operations to the writings of great sailors and soldiers. The subject has already been touched on incidentally under the head of Royal Autographs, for James II. and William IV. were for a time Lord High Admirals of England, while other sovereigns met the enemy on the field of battle.[55] If Wellington can claim distinction as our greatest soldier, he ranks also amongst our most prolific letter-writers. The same may be said of Nelson with almost equal truth. Of Wellington's innumerable letters, a great many are supposed to have been written by his Secretary, Colonel Gurwood, and Nelson's amanuensis is also said to have successfully imitated the handwriting of his chief. There are numerous facsimiles of the letters of both Nelson and Wellington, and the axiom caveat emptor cannot be too frequently remembered when a suspicious specimen is offered for sale. In 1827 we are informed that "English Generals and Admirals vary greatly in value," and they do still. We are told, moreover, that at this epoch "the Royalist Prince Rupert is worth £1 9s., while the Parliamentary General, Fairfax, with four Peers for his supporters, is worth only 10s. The naval hero, Lord Nelson, commands £2 15s., while four other gallant admirals sink to 7s. 3d. each. Washington ranks with Cromwell at £5 15s. 6d., and leaves all other competitors behind." To-day a letter of Thomas Fairfax would bring anything from £7 to £20 or more, and a good D.S. at least £4 or £5. His autographs are always much in request. Washington letters have realised as much as £100 and more, and so have Cromwell's.

In 1876-77-78 Mr. Waller was selling letters of Hood and Rodney at prices varying from 4s. 6d. to 7s. and "Wellingtons" at an average of 5s., but asked 12s. 6d. for a good letter of Villeneuve, who was defeated and taken prisoner at Trafalgar. In the same catalogue I find an A.L.S. of Wellington for 3s. 6d., and "fine specimens" of Turenne Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough (Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Spain temp. Queen Anne), priced respectively at £2 10s. Five years ago, however, a short letter written by the Iron Duke on the evening after Waterloo realised £105 at Sotheby's, and, as I have already stated, Wellington paid £60 for two similar letters during his lifetime—and committed them to the flames. At this time I see three interesting letters of Marlborough and three of his wife, with one document signed by the latter, were sold in a lot for £10 10s. Very good letters of Marlborough may even now be bought in Germany and Belgium for £3 or £4. In the "eighteen-seventies" very little Nelson MS. seems to have been in the market, but Mr. Frederick Barker offered a long A.L.S. of Lady Nelson (May 2, 1805) for 6s., and "directions for approaching Cadiz, 1 p. folio, wholly in Nelson's handwriting," for £3 5s. He priced two good A.L.S. of 1794 and 1795 at £5 5s. and £4 4s. In 1887 I met with a letter of General Gordon, quoted as "very rare," for £2 2s. In the same catalogue is a fine letter of Prince Rupert for £3 3s. I frankly envy the purchaser for 9s. 6d. of a letter written by Marshal Ney, from Montreuil, Boulogne, in 1804, when the terror of French invasion was at its height.

At the present moment there is little demand for the letters of the less known sailors and soldiers of the latter part of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries, like Shovel, Wager, and Rooke, and I have seen a letter of Vernon, whose coat of grogram gave rise to the familiar word which still denotes the dilution of spirits with water, sold for 5s.! There is, however, one naval autograph of this period which now commands high prices. I allude to letters and other MSS. of the ill-fated John Byng, judicially murdered on March 14, 1757, "pour encourager les autres," as Voltaire says in "Candide," or in other words, to save the face of an inefficient and discredited Ministry. I gave £3 in 1907 for an A.L.S. of his which thirty years ago was sold by Mr. Waller for 12s. 6d., but I regard as a veritable autographic treasure the original of his will, which bears his signature in three places, and was executed only forty-eight hours before his tragic death. The sang-froid displayed in its elaboration shows the courage and deliberation of the unlucky admiral when face to face with the "Grim Sergeant."

Only twelve months divide the death of Byng from the birth of Nelson, whose autographs are even more costly than those of the Elizabethan heroes of 1588. They now hold, as I shall presently show, the record as regards both price and interest. I have already alluded to the perils and pitfalls of Nelson forgeries. The collector must, of course, bear in mind the striking differences in the calligraphy of the great Admiral before and after the loss of his right arm in July, 1797. The earliest example I possess of Nelson's handwriting is a commission, signed on April 5, 1781, by him as well as by Lord Lisbourne, Bamber Gascoyne, and J. Greville. Nelson was then twenty-three. He was thirty-nine when he penned with his right hand the following historic letter to Earl Spencer:—

Lord Nelson to Earl Spencer.

Two months later occurred the accident which deprived Nelson of his right hand. The Bath facsimile[56] is a good specimen of his writing with his left hand in the last years of the eighteenth century. In reading any life of Nelson one cannot help being struck with the tenderness of the letters he addressed to his wife up to their abrupt separation. At the end of 1799, while he was still in the Mediterranean, she wrote him the following letter, now in my collection:—

The tone of Lady Nelson's letter to her husband presents a striking contrast to that in which, little more than a year later, he speaks of her in a letter to Lady Hamilton, for which I paid a very large sum early in 1905. As might be expected, the demand for Nelson autographs became more urgent as the centenary of Trafalgar approached, but, on the whole, the rise of price was not quite as marked as might be expected, although one particular letter to Lady Hamilton, apparently little more striking than the one now given, was sold for £1,050. The great Nelson sensation (as far as the autograph market is concerned) came off some five months later, viz., on March 14, 1906, when the unique Nelson document described as follows was disposed of at Christie's:—

NELSON'S FAMOUS MEMORANDUM TO THE FLEET ON THE EVE OF TRAFALGAR.

It was bought by Mr. Frank Sabin for £3,600. A newspaper controversy at once arose on the subject of the transaction. Public attention was forcibly directed to the supreme importance of the document, and an effort was made to secure it for the nation, Mr. Sabin most generously offering to sell it to the authorities at cost price. The movement to acquire it fell through, owing to the impossibility of obtaining a grant-in-aid. Quite unexpectedly the late Mr. B. M. Woollan offered to buy it for the nation, but stipulated that during his life-time the MS. "should remain in his possession and be accessible to the public in the Town Hall at Tunbridge Wells." This was agreed to, Mr. Sabin maintaining his proposal to sell at cost price. The Trafalgar order was framed in oak taken from the Victory under the direction of a British Museum expert, and after remaining for some time at Tunbridge Wells, has found (since Mr. Woollan's death) a final resting-place in the National Collection. On March 14, 1906, Messrs. Maggs paid £170 for one of the official copies of the "General Memorandum," viz., that addressed to William Lechmere, Captain of the Thunderer. It filled 5 pp. It was marked "secret," and contained a note to the effect that "the Captain should return the Secret Memorandum to the Victory when the Thunderer quits the fleet for England." The original has been, or will shortly be, facsimiled by the British Museum MS. Department. Collectors will then be able to procure copies of it at an almost nominal price. During the weeks which followed March 14, 1906, the "Memorandum" became the subject of a dozen romantic legends. Several years ago I purchased the signature of Nelson appended to the last few lines of another of these "official copies" for one sovereign. It was formally attested by the widow of the Captain to whom it was originally sent. I possess a 3 pp. A.L.S. written by Lord Nelson to Lord Collingwood on board H.M.S. Victory, on October 10, 1805—eleven days before Trafalgar. It cost £20. Some time since, the album of the Honourable Charles Greville, the first lover of Emma Hart (Lady Hamilton) was broken up. Amongst the documents I purchased from it was a MS. account of Nelson's household expenses while residing in Bond Street, with Mr. Greville, from April 7 to 18, 1803.

The letters of "Nelson's Hardy"[57] fetch from £1 to £2 each. They lack style, but are characterised by the breezy heartiness which was typical of the man whom Nelson loved and trusted. The discovery of many hundreds of Hardy's letters to his Dorset relatives in 1905 enabled me, writing in collaboration with my friend the Rev. R. G. Bartelot, to supply to some extent a long-felt want in naval history. Here are two Hardy letters which came to light subsequent to our examination of the great mass of his correspondence:—

Captain T. M. Hardy, at Plymouth, to his brother-in-law, Mr. Manfield, at Dorchester.

Captain T. M. Hardy, Torbay, to Mr. Manfield, Dorchester.

Letters of Rodney and Howe now fetch from £1 to £2 each; those of St. Vincent, Collingwood, and the Hoods somewhat less.

Letters of most of the Nelson captains can still be bought at very moderate prices, but if addressed to Nelson the value would be at once doubled.

The finest collection of letters by Fairfax and other soldiers of the Civil War, both Royalist and Parliamentarian, I know of, is in the possession of Mr. F. Sabin, by whose permission I reproduce the letter of Montrose to the King, which is priced at £60:—

Superscription, "for the King's Maiesty," and endorsement, "Lord of Montrose, 3d February."

I have already alluded to the varying prices of Wellington's letters, which depend entirely on the time at which they were written. If dated June 17, 18, 19 or 20, 1815, they might be worth anything from £50 upwards; letters from the Peninsula on military topics bring from £2 to £5, but I only gave 30s. for the note and envelope franked and addressed to Lady Sidmouth, covering a lock of Napoleon's hair—the latter being included in the price! In my opinion there could not possibly be a more interesting souvenir of the victor of Waterloo. The letters of Sir Hudson Lowe are sold from £1 to £3, those of Marshal BlÜcher fetching about the same price.

Few of the letters of living warriors fetch high prices. The amusing and satirical letters of Frederick Burnaby are worth from 4s. to 10s., but I refrain from publishing those in my collection. Letters of Earl Roberts and Viscount Wolseley average from 3s. to 5s., but Lord Kitchener writes little and declines persistently to be "drawn." I once saw a letter of his priced at £2 12s. 6d., but that was when the Boer War was at its height.