THE POET-LAUREATE AS A PEER.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 370, 1 July 1884, Page 5

THE POET-LAUREATE AS A PEER.

The London correspondent of the ' Scotsman ' says : — Lord Tennyson took his seat among his Peers this evening for the first and, in all probability, for the last time. The ceremonial of his introduction was witnessed only by about a dozen Lords. When, at four o'clock, three scarlet-robed figures, with their faces buried in three-cornered hats, presented themselves at the bar, there were five Peers scattered about the scarlet benches, while another half-dozen loitered near the steps of the Throne. The scene, dull though it was, seemed to be particularly impressive to the novitiate. As soon as the salutations had begun, Lord Tennyson proved himself an " anxious care " to his sponsors, the Duke of Argyll and Earl Kenmare. If a wrong moment could be chosen for raising his hat or for lowering his head in a profound bow, the Poet-Peer was careful to select it. Had a cynic chanced to be present he might have had reasonable grounds for asserting that Lord Tennyson did not seem in the least to fit into his position. He was awkward and nervous, evidently moved solely by a cbnsuming desire to have done with the performance as quickly as possible, and then to disappear from the Chamber. After the bowingand genuflexions, at the bar, the three Peers, attended by the Lyon King-at-Arms carrying the patent of nobility, walked up the floor to the woolsack, wliere the Lord Chancellor was very busy raising his hat in acknowledgment of the greetings of his visitors. Then a move was made to the table. Here it was particularly difiicult to keep Lord Tennyson properly on the rails. Again and again the Duke of Argyll had to keep him right. One of his mistakes was decidedly amusing. When the trio reached the table, the Ijjoji King-at-Arms, with awe-inspiring solemnity, handed the patent to the Clerk. A moment's pause ; then Sir William Hose, in full, unctuous tone, recited the terms of the document. When the resonant elocution of the Clerk died away in the echoes, a testament was handed to Tennyson. It was now apparent that he had listened to the reading of his own. title of nobility in a condition of absolute mental abstraction. With somewhat of a start he hastily kissed the book. The Clerk looked very severe, and Lord. Kenmare made a movement. How could it be possible, Sir William Rose appeared to think, that one should not be able to distinguish between his own summons to sit in the House under Her Majesty's most gracious pleasure, and the familiar language of the oath. The offender, however, had by this time become quits hardened to his new life. When h» found that the Clerk would not take back the book, he stood with unruffled composure, holding it in his hand and waiting meekly for the next stage in the ceremony. Fortunately, no other mishap occurred. The book was kissed a second tune, the procession marched around the House with many halts, at carefully-calcuiated intervals, for the further 'exchange of salutations between the new Peer and the Lord Chancellor, and then the trio took their seats on the back bench of the Conservative side. This last act was in accordance with a venerable precedent, and had no political significance whatever. It is the inviolable practice of the House that Peers, on their introduction, shall take their seats in this particular quarter, and on the bench appropriate to their rank. Lord Tennyson's stay was not of long duration. Once more he was set to work by the Duke of Argyll to salute the Lord Chancellor, and, after his hat had been punctiliously raised three separate times, the curious ceremony was at an end. It was with more alacrity than he had hitherto shown that L oi«£ X enayson now marched out of the House iri company with his two friends. He did not again visit the Chamber. For about ten minutes he loitered in the retiring-room, the centre of a small group of peers, who hung about him as if he exercised some strange attraction. As he stood there without his robes it was the more plainly seen how old-looking nv<\ fr»eble lie has become. His figure is beta, a.aa ids stop is tottering and weak. The fatigue of the afternoon had evidently taxed his strength, >and it was no doubt with, a feeling of relief that, at half -past four, he found himself clear of Westminster and its precincts.