42
LETTERS.
[1803.
[Autograph, in the possession of Colonel Davison.]
My dear Davison , 23, Piccadilly, February 8th, 1803.
I have longed, for an age, to write you a line; for no one[can] have more felt for the distress you must have sufferedthan us of this house. Miss Davison was so good as to sendus word that William 9 was better. I trust that you will nowsoon be enabled to travel, and that I shall very soon have thepleasure of shaking you by the hand. Your kind offer I feelmost sensibly; but at present I have no wants; and I hopesoon to be in that state of complete independence, which youso really wish. But ‘ A friend in need is a friend indeed ’ isan old adage, but not the less true, and I am truly thankfuland grateful for all your kindness. I am just got to work onthe Copenhagen business, and I hope to get from Mr.Addington 50 or £60,000 for the Captors, including theHolstein. Sir Hyde has given up the management of thismatter to me. At another Board, they are still disputing; butthe Secretary and myself are feeling towards each other as weever ought (I do not choose to mention names.) Yesterday,I was at Colonel Despard’s 1 trial, subpoenaed by him for acharacter. I think the plot deeper than was imagined; butas to the extent, nothing except the Guards has come out. Ihave been, and am, very bad in my eyesight, and am forbidwriting; but I could not resist. Lady Hamilton joins me inkind respects to Mrs. Davison, and to the boys every goodwish ; and believe me ever, my dear Davison , your most faith-ful and affectionate friend, Nelson and Bronte.
0 Mr. Alexander Davison married, in February 1788, Harriet, daughter of RobertGosling, Esq., the Banker in Fleet Street, by whom he had three sons—viz., Colo-nel Hugh Percy Davison, (to whom the Editor is indebted for the Letters to hisfather,) Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Davison, K.H., (twins,) and Alexander ,who died young; and three daughters, Elizabeth, who married General White.Dorothy, who married Captain Samuel Edward Widdrington , R.N., of NewtonHall, K.T.S.; and Harriet, who died unmarried. Mr. Alexander Davison died, atBrighton, in his eightieth year, in December 1829.
1 On the 7th of February, Lord Nelson appeared as a Witness on the trial ofColonel Despard for high treason, when he deposed that he had served with the pri-soner on the Spanish Main and at the attack of Fort St. Juan, in 1780, [vide vol. i.p. 84*,3 and that he bore the character of a brave Officer and honourable and loyalman. Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, adverting to this testimony, observed,that it had been given by “ a man on whom to pronounce an eulogy were to wastewords.”