he whole family
moved to Louth from Somersby in order to make a home for the boys. In
1820, at the age of eleven, Alfred left the school, and returned with
his family to the parsonage at Somersby. In 1828 he went to Cambridge,
and the years that elapsed between his leaving the grammar-school and
his entering the university were among the most important in the youth
of the poet. His further instruction in preparation for college was
carried on at home; but on the whole the teaching was desultory;
although, judging from the results, what was done in the way of direct
instruction was done thoroughly. As Mr. Graham tells us, there was not
a clever man in the county who was not asked to give his assistance in
the task. One tutor drilled Alfred in mathematics; another in music;
and a Roman Catholic priest taught him and his brother linguistics
with a view to the university; and Alfred was allowed to spend much
time in wandering about the moors, or in the woods that covered the
hills on whose skirts the village of Somersby stood. Carlyle writes to
Emerson: "You see in Tennyson's verse that he is a native of moated
grange and green flat pastures, not of mountains and their torrents,"
and this is true in part; but Mr. Graham tells us that the country
about Somersby is not flat, but broken and hilly, and that the place
is named Somersby, _i.e._, summer's town, because it abounds in birds
and flowers; and, indeed, one may know by the frequent allusions to
flowers and birds and the nice observation shown in these allusions,
that these things must have made a strong impression on the youthful
mind of the poet. He learned nature at first hand, and had his lesson
by heart, unconsciously imbibing it from his walks alone, or with his
dearly loved elder brother, Charles--elder by five years--over all the
country-side; and there is no doubt that the wild and dreary side of
that region, the flat expanse of the fens slowly rescuing from the
ever threatening and invading sea, the long line of the coast with
its beaches and ridged mounds of sand built by the winds, and
strengthened by the bird-sown seeds of grass to be barriers against
the ocean--that all these scenes made an impression on his mind strong
to balance the sweet woodland pastoral note of the Somersby brooks and
flowery hollows, no one can doubt who knows Tennyson's poetry. He had
little love for the hardier sports of boys, but was not a retiring
child either, nor over-contemplati