Wednesday, January 24, 2007

ON THE NELSON TRAIL




About 37 miles northwest of Catania, tucked away in the shadow of Etna, lies the town of Bronte, the dukedom of which was bestowed upon a certain Admiral Horatio Nelson by a grateful King Ferdinando [III of Sicily and IV of Naples] in 1799. A little further on still is Maniace, where the former Benedictine Abbey became known as Il Castello dei Nelson. And that is where I have been today. It is a lovely and impressive place, as I hope the photos will show - much lovelier than I had anticipated. I should like to be able to tell you that England's saviour lingered there in the sun with his Emma - and many Sicilians believe that he did - but, alas, he died without ever having seen it. The first of his descendants to arrive there was his niece Charlotte, who, reaching it after a truly nightmarish journey, decided that it was not to her taste and stayed only three days! [More the fool her!] It was later used by other members of the family but under agrarian reform in Italy in 1961 much of the land was redistributed. The Nelson family sold the castle and park to the Comune of Bronte in 1981.
There may, however, be another British connection: the Rev. Patrick Prunty or Brunty, father of another Charlotte plus Emily, Anne and Branwell, changed his name to Brontë in 1802. I like to think that he did it as a homage to Nelson then added the diaeresis for effect and the dates do tally. By the way, I am not of the Mrs. Gaskell school of thought with regard to Patrick Brontë for I do not believe that he was a monster: he saw that his children were educated, encouraged them to write and cared for Branwell tenderly during the latter's last illness. I am also of the opinion that the main reason for his opposition to the Bell Nicholls marriage was concern for Charlotte's health, and in this he was, tragically, proved right. But I digress. Let us at least hope that poor, bereaved Mr. Brontë found some comfort in his name in the winter of his life. I wonder what, if anything, he knew of the little town in faraway, sunny Sicily? He was a well-read man, so it is possible that he knew something....
I now have to confess that I made this trip the lazy way. It would not be possible to get to Bronte and back in a day using public transport, so I hired a car and a driver. This is not a particularly cheap thing to do in Sicily but it was cheaper than staying in a Catania hotel overnight and, more importantly, saved me kennelling Simi for a night. ["And I should think so, too!" she is saying as she sits beside me, waiting for her walk.] This, again, is something the Sicilians need to sort out: no one will use Modica or anywhere else as a base if they can't get around. Not everyone wants to hire a car, as even if you are used to driving in Italy, to do so here is, at the very least, challenging! The best thing that towns of Modica's size could do to encourage tourism would be to organise escorted trips to places of interest such as Bronte.
But let us return to our hero. Nelson, me old hearty, I've always thought you looked terribly lonely all the way up there on that column. So next time I'm in London, I'll sit in the National Gallery's restaurant, gaze across at you and tell you all about your Duchy of Bronte today. How's that?
More photos - and more, and more! - in a minute!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

How fabulous. Lord Nelson is my hero, btw. He was an inspirational figure who was admired by all classes and was the first admiral to care about improving conditions for seaman working and living in the most apalling conditions. And of course, he loved Lady Hamilton, a most scandalous relationship, but true love, nevertheless. He is going to be the subject of my next Toastmaster speech.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Cityunsicker is a fan of Horatio Lord Nelson too, why not post a comment on his site and let him know your findings. I can't access his site, Blogger access problems again. When will you all switch over to WordPress?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Thanks, Ellee. What a coincidence that N will be the subject of your next Toastmaster! I feel sorry for Lady H., dying in poverty as she did, for I believe she truly loved him. [I am such a nitwit for a love story!] Thanks re cityunslicker, too. I kind of hate to push myself, but Ok, I'll do it! I've got more photos to post, by the way, but blogger is playing around again. I'm too scared to change the technology, Ellee, not having any kids in the house to help!

Liz Hinds said...

What a wonderful-looking place! And a fantastic story you've told. The Duke of Bronte, well, well.

And the Brontes themselves: so much history brought to our attention. Fascinating.

By the way, Welshcakes, Blogger forced me to change to Beta (or beyond), and it was very painless and certainly easier for photos.

Anonymous said...

It seems we are all Nelsonians. He's England's greatest military hero in my opinion.

I was delighted to be able to take part in the "Trafalgar 200" fleet review as a paying guest on HMS Gloucester with my younger daughter. It was a great day dedicated to the memory of that great man and we had the honour to be part of the group which sailed past the Queen in tight formation at high speed (for warships).

I am envious of your trip, but will make it myself one day.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post. You have outdone yourself this time. Oh how I wish I could have taken that tour. Good on you Welshcakes.

Maria said...

How brillant! What a terrific post! Thanks for all the photo's I loved. Over the summer I went to Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in Salem. It was for me magnificant because I am a huge fan. I was even in the house of 7 gables it was so much fun!

However the Bronte's have long been my own personal treasure! What fun it must have been!

All the best and grazie mille! ~M

CityUnslicker said...

I did not know about Bronte when I visited Sicily two years ago otherwise I would have attended.

Nice to see all the pictures and the glasses that were used on the day of Traflagar itself. Thanks for this.

I don't remember driving as being too bad when I was in Sicily; but then I am quite a bad driver myself.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi again, Liz. Thank you. Glad you liked the story. Re Beta, I'm still scared so I'll wait till they make me change, I think! Thanks for the info, though.
TP, the fleet review must have been a wonderful occasion, for you and your daughter. Hope you get to make the trip - you would enjoy it.
Steve, you are always so kind. Thank you.
M, you too, are always kind and make me feel better and encouraged. The visit to NH's must have been fantastic. I love these kinds of visits.
Cityunslicker, thanks for coming over. Perhaps you'll make that trip on your next visit to Sicily. I think the glasses were my favourite bit - they seemed, well, so evocative of the man and his comrades. With regard to the driving, I don't drive myself, so perhaps watching it is scarier! Modica is a small town and the way its inhabitants manoeuvre in and out of seemingly impossible spaces and reverse into lines of oncoming traffic terrifies me! But you are probably more intrepid than me!

James Higham said...

Have you been taking Gracchi tablets or something? Wow, what a slice of history or eight. And Simi and yourself right in the middle of it. And the commenters here also interesting.

Anonymous said...

So very interesting and well told. Welshcakes, have you thought about adding to the Wikipedia knowledge bank? I'm a member. Full stop. Not done anything more than that yet but will do one day. Kind of scared I'll never leave it alone...but it will be a fantastic archive for the future.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad Tom shares my views about Lord Nelson because he is such a scholarly man. I really want to visit this site too, I have got itchy feet...

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Ciao, James. Gracchi tablets - brilliant! - that must be it!
Shirl, I'd never thought of that but will look into it. Thank you. Coming to visit you in a mo.

Colin Campbell said...

I remember my friend from Primary School brought out a version of his family tree, with Lord Nelson on it. It looked very authentic to a 7 year, but I never did establish whether it was authentic. I don't really think that it mattered much and I didn't want to argue.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, CC. I agree with you: if your primary school pal got pleasure from thinking Nelson was part of his family, then what harm did it do for him to believe that? We all need a little romance, after all.

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