The record-union., 1897-05-17
We Offer Monday.

him. But after a disturbed night,
was told that he got out of bed in the
morning, went quietly to the garden.
picked up one of the broken pipes, stuff
fed it with the remains of the tobacco
scattered about, and then, having a few
puffs, came to breakfast, all right
| again. Nothing was said any more
about giving up tobacco.
He once kindly offered to lend me his
house in the Isle of Wight; but,
mind" he said, you will be watched
from morning till evening" This was,
| in fact, his great grievance, that he
could not go out without being stared
at. Once, taking a walk with me and
my wife on the downs behind his house
he suddenly started, left us. and ran
home, simply because he had deserted
two strangers coming toward us.
I was told that he once complained
to the Queen, and said that he could no
| longer stay in the Isle of Wight on ac-
count of the tourists who came to stare
at him. The Queen, with a kindly
| irony, remarked that she did not suf-
fer much from that grievance; but Ten
| nyson, not seeing what she meant, re-
piled: No madam, and If I could
| clap sentinel wherever / liked |
should not be troubled, either"
| 1t must he confessed that people We're
very incorsiderate. Rows of tourists
sat like sparrows on the paling of his
garden waiting for his appearance. The
| guides We're actually paid by sight
seers, particularly those from Amer
lea, for showing them the great poet.
70 =,
sailor to look like Tennyson. and the
| result was that, after their trick had
been found out, the tourists would walk
up to Tennyson and ask him: Now.
are you the real Tennyson?" This, no
doubt, was very annoying, and later on
Lord Tennyson was driven to pay a
large sum for some useless downs near
his house simply In order to escape
from the attentions of admiring trav-
elerS
! Why should not people be satisfied
| with the best that a poet is and can
give them, namely, his poetry? Few
| poets are greater than their poetry,
and Tennyson was not one of them.
Like many great poets, such as Victor
Hugo, for instance, the worship that
was paid him by many who came to
| see him was painful to him and to his
| friends. Tennyson frequently took
| flight from his intending BoswelIs. and
was the last man to appreciate the III
parle" by which in Paris all converse
ton was hushed whenever Victor Hugo
was present at a dinner and spoke to
his neighbor possibly only ask him to
! for the menu.
BROWNING'S CONVERSATION.
! Browning was neither of Cambridge
nor of Oxford, but his genius was
much more akin to Oxford than to
Cambridge, and toward the end of his
life, particularly after his son had en-
tered at Balliol College, he was often
| seen among us. Though he was not
! what we call a scholar, his mind was
saturated with classical lore, and his
appreciation Of Greek poetry, Greek
| mythology and Greek sculpture was
keen. He could not quote Greek verses,
| but he was stepped in the Greek ira
| gedians and lyric poets. OF course,
| this classical sympathy was but one
side of his poetry. Browning was full
| of sympathy, nay, of worship, for any
thing noble and true in literature, an
cient or modern. And what was most
delightful in him was his ready re-
| Spouse, his generosity in pouring out
his own thoughts before anybody who
shared his sympathies. For real and
substantial conversation there was no
one his equal, and even in the lighter
after-dinner talk he was admirable His
health seemed good and he was able to