Monday 11th March

A trip to the Greenwich Maritime Museum (6) with Martin Carey (free!!!!). A very cold day but worth it to see Lord Nelson's uniform as worn when he was shot at 1.15pm on the 21st October 1805 by a French sniper located on the rigging of the Redoubtable.

This is the museum...

This is Nelson's uniform...

You can see the hole made by the bullet in the shoulder. Apparently the blood on the stockings isn't his but that of his Secretary who was killed a few minutes earlier (you would have thought that may have suggested it was not a good place to stand).

For good measure... this is Nelson and a picture of a letter he wrote to Lady Hamilton.

There was also a part of the Ensign flown on the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

This was used as a Pall on his coffin before he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Apparently, he wanted to be buried at All Saints in Burnham Thorpe with his parents, but they decided he was too famous for that. I can understand that - there is no motorway to Norfolk. All visitors would have got stuck behind a tractor and then broken down when their head gasket blew.

Martin bought me lunch which was very kind of him.

I then spent a very hot hour with Philip Chatterton at the RAC having a Turkish Steam Bath (7) in London. A couple of pints of London Pride... perfect end to a very cold day.