Lot no. 3

1805, signature "Nelson & Bronte" (with his left hand, after losing his right one in the action off Tenerife in 1797) on free letter front to Cambridge. Nelson had only returned to England on August 17, after chasing Admiral Villeneuve and the French fleet to the West Indies and back. Within a few days of writing this letter he was summoned from his home at Merton, rejoining H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth on September 15, from where she sailed to Cadiz and the Battle of Trafalgar Provenance: Patrick Pearson