The Late Lord Tennyson.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 288, 3 December 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Late Lord Tennyson.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

London, October 15. A writer in bhe «Daily News' (whom I tako to be Christie Murray) narrates how sixteen years ago Edmund Yates, who had recently started the 'World,' commissioned him to do Tennyson as a 'Celebrity ab Home' for bhab journal. Many newspaper men had in vain abtempted to storm Aldworth, and tho job waa given the novice rather to keep him quiet than with any expectation of its over being executed. Murray, however, took ib in hand boldly and sought- an introduction to Tennyson from some of the artist colony ab Haslemere. Very few, however, had ever penetrated within the poet's gates.and the one or two who had knew it would pub an end to bheir slight acquaiubance if bhey unasked book a stranger there. Ultimately Mr Murray in sheer despair took the bull by the horns and wrote candidly to the Laureate stating what he wanted" ' Very anxiously,' says ho, 'I waited for a reply, bub none came, and ab the appointed hour I sob oub for Aldworth. Not altogether astonishing to me, but utterly ab variance with everything that rumour had lead mo to expect, was my reception there. Ushered ab onco into the drawing-room, I had nob to wait a minute before the servant returned to say bhat Mr Tennyson would sco me in his study. Passing through a dim corridor which isseparated from the poet's room by a high screen, I became aware of a fragrant incenso wibh which literary men ara nob unfamiliar. A moment later I was confronted by a tall figure erect then, and crowned, excepb aboub the dome-like i'orohead, wnm a mass of dark hair aboub which bhe lighb from a farther window played. The wonderful eyes looked into mine, and a voice thab struck me as forbiddingly stern in spite of its musical resonance asked, ' Ig this sharp journalistic practice?' That rebuff was unexpected, and Mr Tennyson seeing thab ib nettled me, hastened to explain. Ignorance of the eccentricities of the_ cross-country posts had led me to under estimate time, and ib seems my lebber had only reached Aldworth half an hour before I got there. Somewhat confused by this mishap 1 proposed to withdraw, bub Mr Tennyson said, '< Oh, no ! we are nob quite so inhospitable to a stranger as to turn him away from the threshold." What followed can hardly be writton without some appearance of egotism, and yeb ib was so characteristic of the man thab it must be told. Taking me cordially by the hand he said, 'I liked your letter and I like you.' Then ha beckoned mo to bake a chair beside h'_ desk, handed me a long clay pipe, and, pulling oub a huge tobacco jar, bad 6me smoko.

For half-an-hour or more he talked, with frequent reference to some work then in hand. What struck me more than tiie noble face—rugged and doeply lined with, bhoughb, yeb full of calm dignity and of a tenderness strangely ab variance wibh his somewhat brusque bone and mannsr—was his nabural and unaffecbed disregard of conventionalities. Talking aboub the scenery, I had spoken of a 'knoll,' and had somewhat shortened the proper fullness of pronunciation. He started as if something had grated on a sensitive nerve, or as if one had tried to rob him of a thing he treasured. INo ! nob bhab,' he said, ' the word ia knoll, and ib rhymes wibh roll. You musn'b bake anybhing away from Buch a sound aa bhab.' Being young bhen and a little bib sensitive on bho score of provincialisms, I was conscious of betraying thab feeling by a blush. He pub his hand on my arm with fatherly kindness, and the sweetest smile I ever saw on a man's face softened the curves ot his mouth and brightened tbe dark brown eyes. At Mr Tennyson's requesb I walked aboub the grounds with his son, tho presenb Lord Tennyson, and an hour later I loft Aidworth deeply impressed by tho kindness and bho hospitality bhab had marked my reception there, so different from the churlishness thab common report might havo led me to expect. The interview had been gained, bub any sense of triumph ab having been the first to achieve thao was all gone. I could thenceforth for many days think of nothing bub tbe man in whom seemed to be embodied much that- is besb of bhe noble characters his imagination has created. I think ib took a litble bime to persuade Mr Yates that the success of bhe mission ha had entrusted to me was real, and not a trick of fancy.