One eye for the ladies

SIR – Writing about the forthcoming auction of Nelson’s letters to Emma Hamilton (Comment, December 30), Rowan Pelling focused on his anxiety in 1801 about the attentions the Prince of Wales was paying to his mistress.

She went on to say it seemed that nothing, not even victory at Trafalgar, could protect an anxious lover from the agonies of jealousy.

In theory, Ms Pelling could well be right, but as the battle was not fought until four years later and cost Nelson his life, one cannot really be certain.

Sir Rivers Carew Bt

Girton, Cambridgeshire