The following extract from a letter from Lord Minto to his wife indicates the mode of life of the family party.  He says: 

I went to Lord Nelson’s (Merton) on Saturday.  The whole establishment and way of life makes me angry as well as melancholy.  I do not think myself obliged to quarrel with him for his weakness, though nothing shall ever induce me to give the smallest countenance to Lady Hamilton.  She looks ultimately to the chance of marriage, as Sir William will not be long in her way, and she probably indulges a hope that she may survive Lady Nelson.  She is in high looks, but more immense than ever.  She goes on cramming Nelson with trowels of flattery, which he takes as quietly as a child does pap.  The love she makes to him is ridiculous and disgusting.  The whole house, staircase and all, are covered with pictures of her and him of all sorts and sizes.  He is represented in naval actions, coats of arms, pieces of plate in his honour, the flagstaff of L’Orient.  If it were Lady Hamilton’s house, there might be pretence for it; but to make his own a mere looking-glass to view himself all day is bad taste.

This letter was written on the 22nd March, 1802, and Nelson writes that Sir William Hamilton died in his arms and in Lady Hamilton’s on the 6th April, 1803, passing on “without a struggle, and that the world had never lost a more upright and accomplished gentleman";[5] which, be it said, is rather a stagey performance of his wife’s lover.  But the mistress excels her lover in the record of the death-bed drama.  “Unhappy day,” says she in profusion of tears, “for the forlorn Emma.  Ten minutes past ten dear beloved Sir William left me.”  Emma was poorly provided for; only L700 a year jointure and L100 a year for her mother for life.  She and Nelson appealed to Lord Minto to urge on Mr. Addington her claim for a pension, and she vowed to Minto that her connection with Nelson was pure, and he says he can believe it, which is hardly consistent with the description he gives his wife as to “their open and disgusting proceedings,” or with his comments on a visit paid to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, where the Duke had treated the gallant naval chief and his party as though they were mere ordinary trippers who had come to see the wonders of his possessions.  He condescendingly ordered refreshments to be given to them, which sent Nelson into a fury of indignation, and Minto excuses the Duke by stating that Nelson persuaded himself that all the world should be blind because he chose to extol Emma’s “virtues.”  Obviously, Minto was not firmly convinced of her chastity.