A haunt of ancient Peace.”
A LONG-LIVED FAMILY
The spirit of the poet seemed still to be a haunting presence in the place, and as then, so now and for all time his works speak to us. But three-quarters of a century have passed since a Tennyson has had his home in Somersby. They left in 1837, and though Mary went back at times to see the “beloved place,” Alfred never set eyes on it again. Charles married in that year Louisa Sellwood, whose mother was a sister of Sir John Franklin, and thirteen years later Alfred married her sister Emily. They left Somersby; but Lincolnshire still kept possession of Charles, who took the name of Turner in addition to his own, and ministered happily at Grasby near Caistor, being both vicar and patron of the living; and he and his wife both died there in the spring of 1879, at the comparatively early age, for a Tennyson, of seventy-one, for the family have been a remarkably long-lived one.
| The Mother | died in 1865, | aged | 84 |
| Charles | ” ” 1879 | ” | 71 |
| Mary | ” ” 1884 | ” | 74 |
| Emilia | ” ” 1889 | ” | 78 |
| Alfred | died on October 6, 1892 | ” | 83 |
| Emily Lady Tennyson | died in 1896 | ” | 83 |
| Frederick | ” ” 1898 | ” | 91 |
| Arthur | died in June, 1899 | ” | 85 |
| Horatio | died in October, 1899 | ” | 80 |
| Cecilia | died in 1909 | ” | 92 |
Matilda, who was born before Cecilia and Horatio, still survives. I went to see her in the summer of 1913. I found her well and full of early memories. She was a girl in the schoolroom when she first saw Arthur Hallam, an event of which she had a vivid recollection. I said, “I suppose you get out every fine day for a drive.” “Oh,” she said, “I go out for a walk every day and take the dog.” I thought that rather wonderful at her age. “Yes, I am ninety-seven,” she said, “and I mean to live to be 105.” I told her how Queen Victoria, who was always looking forward to reunion with the dear departed—but ever a ceaseless worker—used to say, “my dear, you should always act as if you were going to live for ever.”
THE MASTER’S OPINION
Alfred, who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850, was raised to the Upper House in 1884. He is buried in Westminster Abbey side by side with his great contemporary, Robert Browning, and on his grave was laid a wreath of bay-leaves from a tree derived from the bay which flourishes over Virgil’s tomb near Naples, and on the wreath were Tennyson’s own magnificent lines, written at the request of the Mantuans for the nineteenth centenary of their poet’s death (1881).
“I salute thee, Mantovano,
I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure