ten years. It was at the end of November; and the day
was fast closing in, when the Hammond, a brig bound from Newcastle to
London, drove on shore during a heavy gale, just a little way to the
south of where we are standing. As she was heavily laden, and the water
is shallow thereabout, she grounded more than a hundred fathoms from the
beach. In a short time the wreck parted, and both her masts fell,
carrying away, as was supposed, the whole of the crew. A short time
after dark, however, one of the preventive men, named Smith, brought
word to Sharman that he heard groans upon the wreck.

"`The groans must come from some poor fellow, and we will do our best to
save him,' cried Sharman; `come along, Smith.'

"Taking a long rope, they hurried back to the beach.

"`Now you hold on to the rope, and I'll make the other end fast round my
waist; and I'll see what I can do,' cried Sharman.

"Without a moment's delay he plunged unto the surf, which three times
carried him off his legs and sent him back on shore. Again he tried,
and this time the sea drove him right against the wreck. The night was
so dark that he had a hard matter to find out where the poor fellow was.
At length he found a man clinging to the breastwork. The poor fellow
told him that just before three men who had clung on until then had been
washed away, and if he had come a few minutes sooner they might have
been saved. As to swimming to shore, that he was certain was more than
he could do. On this Sharman, taking the rope off himself, made it fast
round the seaman's waist, and shouted to Smith to haul in, while he
himself trusted to his strong arms to hold onto the rope. They thus
mercifully got safe to shore."

A more appropriate spot than this could not have been fixed on for a
monument to Nelson, who was born at Burnham Thorpe, of which his father,
the Reverend Edmund Nelson, was rector. His mother was Catherine,
daughter of Dr Suckling, Prebendary of Westminster, with one of whose
sons, Captain Maurice Suckling, he first went to sea, on board the
Raisonnable, of sixty-four guns. His education was obtained, first at
the High School at Sanwich, and afterwards at North Walsham. After the
misunderstanding with Spain had been settled, he left the Raisonnable,
and was sent in a West Indian ship, commanded by a Captain Rathbone, who
had been in the navy with his uncle. So great a dislike for the Royal
Navy was instilled into him by the merchant s