TENNYSON AND HIS NEIGHBORS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12265, 11 October 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

TENNYSON AND HIS NEIGHBORS.

An amusing story is told in the course of an article in Temple Bar on the life of the late Poet Laureate at Earringford in the Isle of Wight, where he resided from 1853. The poet’s early reception in the neighborhood was more than cold. He was regarded very much askance hj the native gentry (says the writer). A mere man who wrote verses, thus to settle himself down comfortably in their midst; it was preposterous! They let him severely alone until the Queen next came over t5 Osborne. Then a rumor got about of a Boyal command to dinner there; and it became apparent that the islanders had been disdaining unawares one whom his Sovereign delighted to honor. Everybody promptly called at Earringford. Nobody got further than the door; and-—so ’tis said—the visiting cards thus left were tied up in a bundle by the irate bard, and thrown out to bloom unseen among the garden shrubs.