He explained his
reasons for preferring Saint Paul's to Westminster Abbey, which were
rather curious: he said that he remembered hearing it stated as an old
tradition when he was a boy, that Westminster Abbey was built on a spot
where once existed a deep morass; and he thought it likely that the
lapse of time would reduce the ground on which it now stands to its
primitive state of a swamp, without leaving a trace of the Abbey. He
added, that his actual observations confirmed the probability of this
event. He also repeated to Captain HARDY several times during the last
two years of his life: "Should I be killed, HARDY, and my Country not
bury me, you know what to do with me;" meaning that his body was in that
case to be laid by the side of his Father's, in his native village of
Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk: and this, as has been before mentioned (in
page 48), he adverted to in his last moments.
An opinion has been very generally entertained, that Lord NELSON'S state
of health, and supposed infirmities arising from his former wounds and
hard services, precluded the probability of his long surviving the
battle of Trafalgar, had he fortunately escaped the Enemy's shot: but
the Writer of this can assert that HIS LORDSHIP'S health was uniformly
good, with the exception of some slight attacks of indisposition arising
from accidental causes; and which never continued above two or three
days, nor confined him in any degree with respect to either exercise or
regimen:[29] and during the last twelve months of his life, he
Complained only three times in this way.
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