The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-07

Ths Tennysons seem originally to lave been
Danes. and to have settled irst north OF The
Humber. The poets birthplace, how wai
the pastoral hamlet OF Somersby. which lies or
the lower slope Of o Lincolnshire void, half way
between Horncastlo and Spilsby. Here, In hi,
fathers rectory, on Aug. Q, 1909. Alfred Tenny
son was born. He was the fourth of twelve
children, eight sons and four daughters, most oil
whom wrote poetry Of moro or less merit, and
all of whom, except two. have lived to the age
OF &c and upward. There was Q brook. 1t seems,
1t Somersby. the charm and beauty OF
which haunted Tennyson through life. Flow
down. cold rivulet, to the SEE" was the poem
especially dedicated to this stream, and not. as
some have supposed. The Brook" which 10 a
product Of the imagination. An old rcd .bricke cd
house. with embattled parapet (Baumbcr's
FARM which adjoins tho rectory garden, has
been identified erroneously with The Moated
Grange" Touching this matter, the poet wrote:
1.-THE Moated Grange Is an imaginary house in
the fen; / never 90 much as dreamed OF Baum.
ber's Farm as the abode At Mariana, and the
character Of Baumber was so ludicrously unlike
the Northern Farmer that it really makes me
wonder how any one can have the face to invent
such stories"
When Tennyson was z years old he was asked,
"wm you 90 to sea or to schoolr' He said.
"To school thinking that school was q kind of
paradise. So he was taken to the house Of his
maternal grandmother at Louth and sent to tho
grammar school there under q tempestuous, fog
Ging master OF the old stamp. He remembered
to his dying day, sitting on the stone steps Of
the school. on o cold winters morning, and
crying bitterly, after a big lad had brutally
eufed him on the head because he was q
new boy. A few years before his death. he
wrote How I did hate that school! Tho
emily good / ever got from it was the memory of
the words, Sonus desiIientis dque,' and OF an
old wall covered with wild weeds opposite the
school window. Iwrote an English poem there;
the only line I recollect 10 While bleeding
heroes lie along the shore" As to his earliest
attempts at poetry. he wrote the following note
In 1880: According 20 the best Of my recol.
lection. when I was about eight years old, I COW
cred two sides Of a slate with Thomsorian
blank verso in praise OF flowers for my
brother Charles. who was q year older
than / was, Thomson then being the
only poet I knew. Before I could read. I was in
tho habit, on q stormy day. Of spreading my
arms to the wind and crying out L hear a voice
that's speaking in the wind and the words Far.
far away had always a strange charm for me.
About 10 or IL, Pope's Homer's Iliad became
. favorite of mine. and 1 wrote hundreds aud
hundreds of lines in the regular Popeian metre.
nay. could even improvise them; 90 could my
two elder brothers, for my father was a poet and
could write regular metro very skilfully." Else
where in the Same note we read: My father
once said 20 me. Don't write SO rhythm
tcally; break your lines occasionally for
the sake OF variety Some writer said of ME,
Artist first, then poet suppose l was nearer
thirty than twenty before I was anything of An
artist. about twelve and onward, l wrote
~ 4~fN - . h~,N. Il
Scott. full OF battles and Of sea and mountain
scenery, with SCOTS regularity Of octo-syllables.
and his occasional varieties. Though the per-
formance was. very likely, worth nothing, I
never felt myself moro truly inspired. I
wrote as much as seventy lines at one
time and used to go shouting them
about The fields in the dark. All these
early efforts have been destroyed, only my
brother-in-law, Edmund Lushington, begged
for a page or two OF the Scott poem. Somewhat
later tat fourteenl 1 wrote a drama in blank
verse, which l have still. and other things. 1t
seems to me 1 wrote them all in perfect metre"
Tonnsycn's grandmother, the sister of the Rev.
Samuel Turner, used to assert: " Alfred's poetry
all comes from me-" When. at her death,
Alfred wrote a CO memorative poem at his
grandfather's request, the old gentleman gave
him half q guinea with these words: Here
10 half q guinea for you. the first you
have ever earned by poetry. and. take my word
for II. the last"
1t is very evident that Tennyson and his
brothers profted by the dominating force
OF their fathers intellect. The Rev. George
Tennyson was a Hebrew and Syriac scholar,
and he perfected himself in Greek in order that
he might teach his sons. ALL that they learned
OF languages. OF the fine arts. OF mathematics
and natural sciences until they went to Cam.
bridge. was learned from him. Tho poet h.mself
used to say In later years that. for his own
part, he had received n good, but not
. regular. classical education. At any rate.
ne became an accurate scholar. the author thor.
oughly drummed into him being Horace. whom
he disiiked in proportion. The time came when
he laniented: They use me as a lesson book
at schools. and they will call me That horrible
Tennyson.' 1t WINS not until many years after
boyhood that I could like Horace. Byron OK.
pressed what l felt, Then farewell Horace,
whom i hated so.' Indeed. l was o. overdosed
with Horace that hardly do him justice. even
now that ] am old" A great advantage POS,
sessed by the boys was the run OF their father
library. Among the authors most read by them
were shakespeare, Milton. Burke, Goldsmith,
Raeelais. Sir William Jones. Addison. Swift,
Defoe' Ceramics, Bunyan. and Button.
We arc told that In tho poem OF Isabel
iennyson more or less described his mother,
VINO was Q remarkable and sanity woman"
"One OF the most innocent and tender.hearted
ladies' ! ever saw" wrote Edward Fitzgerald,
-as devoted herself entirely to her husband
AID her children. She had been, it seems, among
Ihs beauties OF tho county. When she was al
IGost so, . daughter. under cover OF her deaf.
neas. yentrred TO mention the number OF offers
OF marriage which had been maie to her
mother. naming twenty-tour. Suddenly, "a
The amusement OF all present, the old lady
SAio alphabetically and quite siiap!y, as IL for
truths sake, No, my d ar. Twenty-Five"
In 1897 Frederick Tennyson weat from, Eton
where he hal been captain OF the school, to Trim
lily College, CarnbriiGe, In March OF this yea
"Poems by Two Brothcra" was published by a
bookseller in LoLth. When these poems were
written Charles Tennysou was between 10 and
Is and Alfred between is and Il. To tht
brothers was promised the sum OF ego. more
than half OF which, however. had TO be taken in
books out OF the booksellers shop. Cnlik,
Swift. who exclaimed on re reading his early
work. What a genius I had when | wrote that !!