The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-14
HOW TENNYSON LIVES.
His Costume at Home in the Country
and Again in London.
From the 81. Louis Republican.

Tennyson, in his own grounds at home,
looks the poet from top to toe. He is even
Electrically costumed, in his dashing felt
wide-awake, Byronic collar carelessly lolling
like dogs ears over an any-how-wisped up
neckerchief, aud the famous Inverness cape,
half coat, half cloak, flung grandly over
his shoulders 1t was only few weeks ago
that / saw the noble hermit, who is En-
glands poet laureate. 1t was in his busy
London thoroughfare, midday, and his
lordship looked as thorough a fish out of
water as any Norwegian rustic who
strays into Broadway from Castle Garden.
As no one seemed to notice him it was evil
dent they took him for an East End Jew
dealer in "old clo'," which he strangely re-
sembles The romantic wide-awake was
discarded for a dismal, antique, foot-and. a
half tall silk tile that proclaimed it was
enjoying its first full dress holiday for
twenty years at least. The Inverness cape
was there of course, but il was closely
Rugged up to the neck, as if to shield the
sensitive wearer from contact with the
vulgar herd the laureate so breads. His
feet shuffled and slid barely one foot's
length at a step, and the way those inspired
but damp and limp locks chung to the
cheeks of the STOPPING son of genius was
enough to sadden the heart of the sparrows
Tennyson always has been a genuine
Briton, which means that he has a bit of
the bulldog in him. Carlyle had more of
the snarlmg cur, but Tennyson is one of
the uncouthest Old-School giants now left in
England. The poets nature accounts for
much of his exec ctional reserve When he
is in his most amiable mood he is apt to be
absent and makes you feel doubtful whether
he isn't really talking his thoughts to the
solid wall. Tennyson was driven from his
lovely Isle of Wight home by the hordes of
sightseers, who invaded his grounds, his
house, and would have shipped his curls
and his collars by the inch as relics if he
had stayed there much longer. So he built
himself house out Of the prncely fortune
his books have brought him, though he has
been the most busness-like poet in the
mOney-making line that ever made fame
The poets new house stands in a charming
bit of Sussex landscape, far from the beaten
track, lest the crowd should follow. The
old seaside home is still used for portion Of
the year, but in this house az HazlemOre
Tennyson lives most OF his now fading life
1t is pitched high, on a richly wooded ridge,
whence the eye may sweep landscape
teeming with all the varied Injuries of the
garden of England Those most familiar
with his works say that Tennyson's latter
poems are inspired 10y the hills that surround
his Sussex home, in contrast to the earlier
ones, influenced by the fiat expanses of Lin
colnshire, where he spent his young DAYS.
He has buried his home amid trees They
stand all around like thick phalanx of sen
tries keeping grim watcn and ward over
tho strange man who will be heard but will
not be seen. Inside the inner ring there are
gardens trim and pretty, Mough no especial
pride is taken in anything outside the walls.
The garden of his Isle of Wight house was
more picturesquely ragged than elegantly
ordered.
There is an old-world navor in the many
cornered Gothic mansion whose gables and
pinnacles stick out like quilts upon the
fretful porcupne" The interior is rich in
its design and furnishing, the old blending
with the new, as it should in a poets
LockSley Hall. He reads and writes near a
window that commands a view of the fire
wood, and among these odorous trees he
takes his listleSS Strolls, sometimes con
descending to give the villagers a glimpse
of his queer-looking personality, but not
when strangers are likely to be about.
Since he accepted Mr.. Gladstone's peerare
Though he will live as plain Alfred Tenny-
som he favored society with more of his
presence if not Of bis graciouSneSs. In re
turn for his barony Tennyson gave one
vote in the House of Peers. 1t was his first
and soon after his election on Gadstones
side, in extending the franchise, but ever
since then his utterance and his sympathies
have heen in the opposite direction.