been a wheelbarrow!" The
thin volume has long ago passed into the domain of "books not to be
had," and when by any chance a copy is brought to light the price it
brings in the open market would have taken the uncle's breath away.
The book has lately been reprinted, and in this form is now
accessible.

[Illustration: Tennyson in his Library.]

At Cambridge, Tennyson entered Trinity College, and while there made
the acquaintance of Arthur Henry Hallam, which soon ripened into the
friendship that has been made immortal in the poem "In Memoriam."
The only distinction Tennyson would seem to have gained at Cambridge
was the Chancellor's gold medal awarded for the prize-poem
"Timbuctoo," a curious production long consigned to oblivion but now
included in the authorized edition of the poet's collected work.

In 1811 the Rev. Mr. Tennyson died, and on leaving Cambridge, Alfred
returned to Somersby and lived with his mother and sisters. In 1830 he
published "Poems chiefly Lyrical," in 1832 "Poems," and in 1842
"Poems," in two volumes, which first opened the eyes of the English
public to the fact that a new planet had appeared in the heaven of
poetry, and Tennyson's name soon became a household word. In 1845 he
was awarded a pension of L200 per annum from the Civil List, and in
1850 he was made Poet Laureate, on the death of Wordsworth. In the
same year he married Miss Emily Sellwood, whom he had long known at
Somersby, the daughter of a lawyer, and niece of Sir John Franklin. In
1855 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from
Oxford and in 1884, being then in his seventy-fifth year, he was
raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Tennyson of Aldworth
and Farringford.

Tennyson was an ardent lover of England, and seldom left his native
country, and never for any long time. He had two residences, one at
Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, and the other at Aldworth on the top
of Blackdown, in Surrey. He changed from one of these places to the
other according to the seasons and led in both the same quiet family
life, devoted to poetry, and enjoying to the full the delights of the
country, caring little for other society than that of his intimate
friends--a strong contrast in this respect to his great contemporary
Browning, who delighted in the social life of London, as that life
delighted in him. Mr. Edwin Arnold has given in a recent number of
_The Forum_ (1891) a very pleasant account of a day spent at
F