ut longer
pieces are _Observations upon the United Provinces_, and _Essay on the
Original and Nature of Government_. Apart from their immediate interest
they mark a transition to the simpler, more concise, and more carefully
arranged sentences of modern composition.

TENNANT, WILLIAM (1784-1848).--Poet and scholar, a cripple from his
birth, was _b._ at Anstruther (commonly called Anster) in Fife. As a
youth he was clerk to his brother, a corn-merchant, but devoted his
leisure to the study of languages, and the literature of various
countries. In 1813 he became parish schoolmaster of Lasswade, near
Edinburgh, thereafter classical master at Dollar Academy, and in 1835
Prof. of Oriental Languages at St. Andrews. In 1812 he _pub._ _Anster
Fair_, a mock-heroic poem, in _ottava rima_, full of fancy and humour,
which at once brought him reputation. In later life he produced two
tragedies, _Cardinal Beaton_ and _John Baliol_, and two poems, _The Thane
of Fife_ and _Papistry Stormed_. He also issued a _Syriac and Chaldee
Grammar_.

TENNYSON, ALFRED, 1ST LORD (1809-1892).--Poet, was the fourth _s._ of
George T., Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire, where he was _b._ His _f._
was himself a poet of some skill, and his two elder brothers, Frederick
T. (_q.v._) and Charles T. Turner (_q.v._), were poets of a high order.
His early education was received from his _f._, after which he went to
the Grammar School of Louth, whence in 1828 he proceeded to Trinity
Coll., Camb. In the previous year had appeared a small vol., _Poems by
Two Brothers_, chiefly the work of his brother Charles and himself, with
a few contributions from Frederick, but it attracted little attention. At
the Univ. he was one of a group of highly gifted men, including Trench
(_q.v._), Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton (_q.v._), Alford
(_q.v._), Lushington, his future brother-in-law, and above all, Arthur
Hallam, whose friendship and early death were to be the inspiration of
his greatest poem. In 1829 he won the Chancellor's medal by a poem on
_Timbuctoo_, and in the following year he brought out his first
independent work, _Poems chiefly Lyrical_. It was not in general very
favourably received by the critics, though Wilson in _Blackwood's
Magazine_ admitted much promise and even performance. In America it had
greater popularity. Part of 1832 was spent in travel with Hallam, and the
same year saw the publication of _Poems_, which had not much greater
success