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A LETTER FROM ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD WITH A PROPOSAL FOR A MONUMENT TO NELSON, 1805 A LETTER FROM ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD WITH A PROPOSAL FOR A MONUMENT TO NELSON, 1805 Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood, Letter signed by Collingwood ‘To the respective Captains of H.M. Ships’, headed General Mem[orial], ‘submits to the Admiral, Captains, Officers, Seamen and Marines his Compliance with the request made him, of assenting at the general Expense of the Squadron, on Portsdown Hill, a lasting monument to their late Chiefs memory and great name’ and hopes to procure the sum of £2,000 to be deducted from the prize money ‘arising from the Action of Cape Trafalgar the 21st ultimo’, 4pp. (3 blank save for endorsement), written aboard H.M.S. Queen off Cape Trafalgar, 2 November 1805 -- 14½ x 9in. (35.5 x 23cm.) The Nelson monument, 120 feet tall, stands on Portsdown Hill, about two miles north of Portsmouth Harbour. It was mooted during Nelson’s lifetime but gained momentum after his death. A design for the monument by John Thomas Groves was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807. It was modelled on the Aksum Stele, Ethiopia, Groves being inspired by the findings of Henry Salt who visited that country in 1805. The monument was begun in 1807 with Nelson’s bust at the apex. It was rebuilt in 1899 but with the original bust.