with a rapture which conveyed the highest satisfaction to his heart.  He perceived the kindest attentions to his son’s happiness in every act of all around him:  and their success, in the joy now constantly diffused over his countenance; beaming in every glance of his eye, and speaking in every accent of his tongue.  He beheld his great and good son happy, and blessed and loved the friends who made him so.  “Merton,” he said, “is the Mansion of Peace, and I must become one of the inhabitants.  Sir William and myself are both old men, and we will witness the hero’s felicity in retirement.”  Such was the intention of this virtuous and pious parent; who had, however, been long so habituated to passing his winters at Bath, that he could not, at once, wean himself of the custom:  but he never resided with Lady Nelson, as has been falsely reported, from the moment he was convinced of his illustrious son’s having been so egregiously misrepresented.  Apartments, in the mean time, were actually prepared for him at Merton Place; and it was agreed that, after wintering at Bath, he should, in May, come to reside wholly with his son and Sir William and Lady Hamilton:  but, unfortunately, the salubrity of Bath proved insufficient to prolong his valuable life even till that period, for he died at his own apartments in that city, on the 26th of April 1802, in the seventy-ninth year of his age:  lamented by every person who had ever known him, with the deepest veneration and regret, for the blameless sanctity of his amiable manners, the agreeable cheerfulness of his admirable disposition, and the warm benevolence of his excellent heart.

The loss of such a father, though at an age when it was to be expected, could not but be sensibly felt by the amiable offspring whom he left behind.  Lord Nelson, ever tender as an infant in all that regards the soft affections, lamented his father’s death with a grief so poignant, that its effect had nearly proved fatal to himself.

About the middle of July, Sir William Hamilton being desirous that Lord Nelson should accompany him into Wales, for the purpose of viewing Milford Haven, and the improvements at Milford, which the Honourable Mr. Greville had made on his uncle Sir William’s estate, under the powers of an act of parliament passed in 1790, a party was formed, consisting of his lordship, Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and Dr. Nelson, the present earl, with his lady and son.  In compliment to his heroic friend, Sir William had resolved to establish, at Milford, a fair, or annual festival, on the 1st of August; and his nephew, the Honourable Mr. Greville, kindly undertook to make every requisite preparation for receiving them on the joyous occasion.