Tennyson.
By Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A.
By permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
Although we were in communication with Dante Gabriel Rossetti at an earlier date, when we engraved a small drawing[9] which he made in illustration to a poem, "The Maids of Elfin-Mere," by William Allingham, published by Bell and Daldy, in a volume entitled, "Day and Night Songs"—Rossetti's artist co-workers in this book were J. E. Millais and Arthur Hughes, all the drawings being engraved by ourselves—we did not come in contact with him again until we received the following letter:
"17 Orange Grove, Bath.
"My dear Sirs,—I have just had a note from Mr. Moxon sent to me here, by which I learn that you are cutting a drawing of mine, and that it will soon be finished. Will you kindly send me the proof here (to the above address) and I will at once retouch it and send it back to London. I have been lately admiring your work in the 'Poets of the 19th Century,' and can only hope for a rendering equal to what Millais has there had at your hands.
"Yours very truly,
"D. G. Rossetti."
The Millais drawings here alluded to are those made to illustrate passages from Byron and Coleridge, mentioned later on. His own was the St. Cecillia which Rossetti did for the "Illustrated Tennyson."[10]