ithout any
dignity; who, I suppose, must resemble what Suwarrow was in his youth,
as he is like all the pictures I have seen of that General. Lady
Hamilton takes possession of him, and he is a willing captive, the
most submissive and devoted I have ever seen. Sir William is old,
infirm, all admiration of his wife, and never spoke to-day but to
applaud her. Miss Cornelia Knight seems the decided flatterer of the
two, and never opens her mouth but to show forth their praise; and
Mrs. Cadogan, Lady Hamilton's mother, is--what one might expect. After
dinner we had several songs in honour of Lord Nelson, written by Miss
Knight, and sung by Lady Hamilton.[12] She puffs the incense full in
his face; but he receives it with pleasure, and snuffs it up very
cordially." Lord Minto, whose friendship for Nelson was of proof,
wrote eighteen months after this to his wife: "She goes on cramming
Nelson with trowelfuls of flattery, which he goes on taking as quietly
as a child does pap."[13]

"Lady Hamilton," wrote Mrs. St. George on succeeding days, "paid me
those kinds of compliments which prove she thinks mere exterior alone
of any consequence ... She loads me with all marks of friendship at
first sight, which I always think more extraordinary than love of the
same kind, pays me many compliments both when I am absent and present,
and said many fine things about my accompanying her at sight. Still
she does not gain upon me ... Mr. Elliot says, 'She will captivate the
Prince of Wales, whose mind is as vulgar as her own, and play a great
part in England,'"--a remark which showed shrewd judgment of
character, as Nelson afterwards found to his intense disturbance. At
Vienna the whole party had been presented at Court, but at Dresden the
Electress refused to receive Lady Hamilton, on account of her former
dissolute life. "She wished to go to Court," says Mrs. St. George, "on
which a pretext was made to avoid receiving company last Sunday, and I
understand there will be no Court while she stays." Nelson felt
resentment at this exclusion, though powerless, of course, to express
it; but he declined an invitation to a private house which had not
been extended to her. This incident naturally raised the question,
what prospect there was of the lady being accepted at the Court of her
own sovereign. "She talked to me a great deal of her doubts whether
the Queen would receive her, adding, 'I care little about it. I had
much rather she would settle