fashion, who engaged her as a humble companion, and while with her she acquired the rudiments of the accomplishments for which she was subsequently famous. Interesting herself in the release of a relative or acquaintance—a Flintshire man, who had been seized by a press-gang—she applied in his behalf to Captain, afterwards Admiral Payne, and by a sudden transition the beautiful petitioner became the mistress of that distinguished naval officer. From him she passed to a Sussex baronet, Sir Harry Featherstonehaugh, with whom she learned to be a bold horsewoman and huntress. Her next liaison, one of some duration, was with the Hon. Charles Greville, a man apparently of more taste and talent than morality, and who exerted himself to develope her intellectual and artistic gifts. He introduced her to the painter, Romney, on whom her beauty made so deep an impression, that she figures in no less than twenty-three of his pictures. Her social and artistic education was completed under Mr. Greville's uncle (See Hamilton, Sir William, Right Hon.); and when she returned with this new protector from Naples to London in 1791, she astonished the higher circles of the metropolis by the beauty, not only of her person, but of her singing and acting. To Sir William she was married at London on the 6th of September, 1791; for some unknown reason signing herself "Harte" in the marriage register. After the marriage, Sir William returned with his bride to Naples, where he was English minister, and to the queen of Naples Lady Hamilton is said to have taken a letter of recommendation from Marie Antoinette. However that may be, Lady Hamilton acquired and retained a powerful influence over the queen, and exerted it with energy and success for the promotion of British interests. Her most notable achievement in this way, and one of great importance, was in the June of 1798. Naples was at peace with France, and one of the stipulations between the two countries was, that not more than two English ships should be allowed at any one time to enter Naples or a Neapolitan port. Nelson was in pursuit of the French fleet, but his own was without water and provisions. He dispatched Troubridge to Sir William Hamilton, to procure the permission to enter Naples or some other port of the two Sicilies, without which he would have been forced to give up the chase and return to Gibraltar. While Sir William was pleading unsuccessfully with the king and the royal council. Lady Hamilton was boldly overcoming the scruples of the queen. Armed with an order signed by the queen of Naples, Nelson entered Syracuse, obtained what he wanted, and fought the battle of the Nile. Soon afterwards the two co-operated again in effecting the escape of the royal family of Naples to Palermo, and an intimacy sprang up between Nelson and Lady Hamilton which has been a matter of controversy, but which the world refuses to believe, with Sir Harris Nicholas, to have been merely a Platonic attachment. There is, however a doubt whether Lady Hamilton was the mother of Nelson's daughter, Horatia. Just before going into the battle, which proved the victory of Trafalgar, Nelson, in a codicil to his will, wrote—"I leave Emma Lady Hamilton a legacy to my king and country;" but neither king nor country paid any attention to the bequest, which was again confirmed by the hero when he was dying. After Nelson's death Lady Hamilton's affairs fell into irretrievable confusion. In 1813 she was confined as a prisoner for debt in the king's bench. Released by the kindness of a generous alderman, she fled with Nelson's Horatia to Calais, and after eighteen months of penury and struggle, died in the greatest poverty on the 15th January, 1815. Some semi-apocryphal memoirs of Lady Hamilton were published at London in the year of her death. The best and most careful account of her strange career is a paper entitled "Lady Hamilton," in Blackwood's Magazine for April, 1860.—F. E.
HAMILTON, Gavin, an accomplished Scotch painter, born at Lanark about 1730. He painted history and portrait, and his figure pieces were chiefly from Homer's Iliad and other classical subjects; but he was more given to the inquiry into the remains of ancient art than to the practice of painting itself. He was of good family, and inherited property sufficient to enable him to live independent of his profession. Hamilton was in London about 1752, and went shortly after to Rome, where he became the scholar of Agostino Masucci, a distinguished pupil of Carlo Maratti. The style of Maratti was adopted by Hamilton, and one of his works—an Apollo—is preserved in Guildhall, London. He, however, soon turned his attention to his favourite pursuits. In 1769 he commenced his many excavations in and near Rome, and he found some very valuable remains of ancient sculpture, several of which passed into the Townley collection, now in the British Museum, and many are in the Vatican. About 1773 he published his "Schola Italica Picturæ," being a selection of celebrated Italian paintings in various collections in Italy, engraved chiefly by Volpato and Cunego. Some few of these have since found their way into our National Gallery. Hamilton also published prints of some of his own works; but they are of an insipid, academic character, and have failed to procure him any reputation as a painter. He was best known in Rome as a patron of young artists and a connoisseur. He is said to have been the first to recognize the great talents of Canova. He died at Rome in 1797.—R. N. W.
HAMILTON, George, Earl of Orkney, a distinguished military officer, was the fifth son of William Douglas, earl of Selkirk, noticed above, by Anne, duchess of Hamilton, and was born in 1666. He was trained to arms under the care of his uncle the earl of Dumbarton, and attained the rank of colonel in 1690. He fought with conspicuous bravery at the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim against the forces of James II. In 1692 he received the command of the Royal Scots, or first regiment of foot, and distinguished himself at their head throughout the campaigns in Ireland, where he assisted at the sieges of Athlone and Limerick, and in Flanders against the French, particularly at the disastrous battles of Steinkirk in 1692, and Landau in 1693, and at the siege of Namur in 1695. His gallantry at the capture of this famous fortress, where he was severely wounded, was rewarded by William III. with the rank of brigadier-general. He shortly after married Elizabeth Villiers, the mistress of King William—a lady distinguished for her great abilities rather than for her personal charms—and in 1696 was created a peer of Scotland by the title of Earl of Orkney. After the accession of Queen Anne he received various honours; and in 1704 fought under Marlborough at Blenheim, where he took prisoners no less than thirteen thousand of the enemy. He subsequently rendered important service in frustrating an attempt of the French upon the citadel of Liege. In 1707 he again served in Flanders, and took part in the battles of Nivelle, Tournay, Mons, and Malplaquet. In 1712 he was appointed general of foot under the duke of Ormond; was nominated governor of Edinburgh castle; was made one of the lords of the bedchamber to George I. in 1714; and was also constituted governor of Virginia. Lord Orkney was repeatedly chosen one of the sixteen representatives of the Scottish peerage. At the time of his death, in 1737, he had attained the rank of field-marshal.—J. T.
* HAMILTON, Hans Claude, F.S.A., descended from a good family of Irish extraction, received his early education on the continent. He there acquired an ease and fluency in writing and speaking the French language, to which he has added an extensive and critical knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. In 1829 he was selected as tutor to Prince Nicholas Esterházy, the son of the distinguished Austrian ambassador to the court of St. James, and on the prince's departure for Hungary in 1834, was engaged by the late record commissioners to assist in the completion of one of the works about to be published under their auspices. In 1838 he was employed along with John Mitchell Kemble, in collecting the charters and wills published in the Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici. In the same year he was appointed by the lords commissioners of her majesty's treasury to make a calendar of state papers. In the State Paper office he found a wide field for the exercise of his knowledge, and executed many intricate and important services, for which his acquaintance with northern and oriental languages gave him peculiar aptitude. In 1848 he edited the Latin Chronicle of Walter de Hemingburg. In 1850 he published his "Index to the Pictorial History of England;" in 1851 his Hebrew version of Tupper's Hymn for all Nations. In 1854 he published a "Grammar of the Greek Language," and, in the same year, the first volume of the English translation of Strabo's Geography. In 1856 he edited in Latin the History of English Affairs of William of Newburg, and in 1858 he translated Baron Jolly's notice of the Chapelle de Bourgogne at Antwerp. He was in 1855 appointed one of the assistant-keepers of the public records, and in 1857 was intrusted to him the task of editing the calendar of state papers relating to Ireland, the first volume of which has been published. This work is of the utmost historical importance.—M.
