SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF TENNYSON’S TALK FROM 1835 TO 1853
[Many more were in a Notebook, which I have now lost.—E. F. G.]
By Edward FitzGerald
(Given to Hallam Lord Tennyson[24])
1835
(Resting on our oars one calm day on Windermere, whither we had gone for a week from dear Spedding’s Mirehouse at the end of May 1835,—resting on our oars, and looking into the lake quite unruffled and clear, he quoted from the lines he had lately read us from the MS. of “Morte d’Arthur” about the lonely lady of the Lake and Excalibur.)
Nine days she wrought it, sitting all alone
Upon the hidden bases of the Hills.
“Not bad that, Fitz, is it?”