_Lord Nelson_ (Vol. vi., p. 576.).--I am obliged to MR. KERSLEY for giving
me an opportunity of reconciling my statement respecting Dr. Scott (Vol.
vi., p. 438.) with the inscription on Mr. Burke's monument. Both, I
believe, are true. I quote from the _Authentic Narrative of the Death of
Lord Nelson_, by William Beatty, M.D. &c. The copy of this work which is
before me has the following in Sir W. Beatty's own handwriting: "To the
Rev. Doctor Scott, with every sentiment of regard, by his friend and
messmate, the author." In this "narrative," Dr. Scott and Mr. Burke are
generally described as personally attending on Lord Nelson from the time of
his being brought down into the cockpit. And at p. 50. it is said: "Doctor
Scott and Mr. Burke, who had all along sustained the bed under his
shoulders," &c.: and again at p. 51. "His lordship breathed his last at
thirty minutes past four o'clock: at which period Dr. Scott was in the act
of rubbing his lordship's breast, and Mr. Burke supporting the bed under
his shoulders." All this is represented in West's beautiful picture, which
hangs, in a bad light, in the hall of Greenwich Hospital.
There is another claimant for the honour of having been Nelson's last
nurse, whose name I forget. His pretensions are recorded on a tablet to his
memory in the chapel of Greenwich Hospital. Dr. Scott's daughter, who was
with me there one day, remonstrated on the subject with old blue jacket who
lionised us. And I put in the lady's right to speak with some authority.
But "what is writ is writ," was enough for our guide: we could make nothing
of him, for he fought our arguments as if they had been so many guns of the
enemy.