Nelson, William, 1816-1887; Publishers and publishing
He had proved himself a true captain of industry; organized his
extensive business on the most systematic basis; gathered around him a
body of skilled and trusty workmen, on whose loyal co-operation he could
rely; and having thus, with prudent foresight, surmounted the many
impediments that had inevitably beset his way, he turned aside from the
anxieties of business to make for himself a home, in which all the
congenial elements of a singularly emotional and sensitive nature should
thenceforth find free scope for development. He retained to the close of
his life his interest in the multitudinous details of the printing and
publishing works; but he found time for the gratification of many
refined tastes, and for a practical sympathy in public questions, as
well as in the exercise of an open-handed beneficence, the full extent
of which has only been revealed since his death.
The new life of which marriage is the source began for William Nelson
when he was in his thirty-sixth year. On the 24th of July 1851,
Catherine Inglis, the daughter of Robert Inglis, Esquire of Kirkmay,
Fifeshire, a descendant of Sir James Inglis, Bart., of Cramond, gave her
hand, with her heart in it, to William Nelson. The marriage took place
at the old mansion of Kirkmay, acquired by her father, with the estates
of Sypsis and Kirkmay, on his return from a highly successful career in
India. The maternal grandfather of the bride had seen long service
there; and letters preserved by the family show that he was held in high
esteem by Lord Cornwallis, and was the trusted and confidential friend
of Warren Hastings. One of them, addressed to him while he was Resident
at the Court of Scindia, is an amusing example of epistolary conciseness
in preferring an unusual request; and as such was peculiarly germane to
William Nelson’s tastes, as well as to his sense of humour. His fondness
for animals manifested itself at times in odd ways, and had he received
any encouragement the pleasure grounds at Salisbury Green would have
been apt to assume the character of a zoological garden. When travelling
in California in 1870, along with Mrs. Nelson, he was reluctantly
dissuaded from bringing off with him as a novel pet a “gofer,” or
beautifully striped species of lizard, which an Indian offered for sale.
Here was a still more unmanageable pet in request by the old Indian
viceroy in his letter to the grandfather of the bride:--
BENARES, _14th March, 1784_.
“DEAR SIR,--If you can possibly contrive to procure for me a young
lion of a size which may be carried over rocky and mountainous
roads, I shall be much obliged to you. I want to gratify the eager
desire which has been expressed by the ruler of Tibet to have one
in his possession; the people of this country having a religious
veneration for a lion, of which they know nothing but in the
doubtful and fabulous relations of their own books.--I am, dear
sir, yours affectionately,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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