satisfactorily without concentrating the evidence from time to time;
and it is therefore a duty a writer owes to his readers, if they wish
such acquaintance with his subject as he thinks he has succeeded in
acquiring for himself.

The author has received individual assistance from several persons. To
a general expression of thanks he wishes to add his special
acknowledgments to the present Earl Nelson, through whose aid he has
obtained information of interest which otherwise probably would have
escaped him; and to Lords Radstock and De Saumarez, both of whom have
been good enough to place in his hands letters contemporary with
Nelson, and touching incidentally matters that throw light on his
career. Material of the same kind has also been furnished him by
Professor John Knox Laughton, whose knowledge of Nelson and of the
Navy of that period is second to none; it is not the least of the
writer's advantages that he has had before him, to check possible
errors in either fact or conclusions, the admirable, though brief,
Life of Nelson published by Mr. Laughton two years since.

Illustrative anecdotes have also been supplied by Admiral Sir William
R. Mends, G.C.B., who has shown his continued interest in the work by
the trouble he has taken for it; by Mr. Stuart J. Reid, of Blackwell
Cliff, East Grinstead; and by Mr. Edgar Goble, of Fareham, Hants. Mr.
B.F. Stevens, of 4 Trafalgar Square, has also kindly exerted himself
on several occasions to obtain needed information. To Mrs. F.H.B.
Eccles, of Sherwell House, Plymouth, granddaughter of Josiah Nisbet,
Nelson's stepson, the author is indebted for reminiscences of Lady
Nelson, and for her portrait here published; and his thanks are also
due to Lieutenant-Colonel W. Clement D. Esdaile, of Burley Manor,
Ringwood, Hants, through whom he was brought into communication with