Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/249

 ALFRED TENNYSON 183 was the third son in a family of five sons and seven daughters born to the Rev- erend George Clayton Tennyson, who was rector of Somersby, and held, besides, the livings of Beg-Enderby and Great Grimsby. Tennyson's father was a man of various tastes and accomplishments, dabbling in poetry, painting, architecture, musiq, the study of language and mathematics, but doing nothing of note in any of these things. Even as a preacher he seems to have made but little impression, if we may judge by the answer made by one of his old parishioners to the question : " What sort of sermons did Mr. Tenny- son preach ?" " Eee read um from a paaper, an I didn't knaaw what urn meant.". But the father's versatility doubtless did his children good service ; for in such a village as Somersby, the opportunities for general culture were few. Up to the age of seven, when he was sent to the grammar-school at Louth, Alfred was taught at home by his father. We are told that in the case of each of his bovs, Mr. Tennyson was in the habit, before presenting them at the grammar-school, of making them commit to memory and recite every day one of the Odes of Horace, beginning with the Ode to Maecenas and ending with the " In Praise of Augustus " the last Ode of the four Books. Alfred went to Louth, entering the grammar-school the Christmas after the battle of Waterloo. His brother Charles was already there, and the 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 tor- rents," 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 Som- ersby, 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 obser- vation shown in these allusions, that these things must have made a strong impres- sion 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.