TO TENNYSON. TO LATE DUKE OF ARGYLL 87 



Somewhere about 1860 my brother met 

 Tennyson in the Isle of Wight. A friendship 

 sprang up between the great poet and the ardent 

 naturalist, and over their pipes, with all inter- 

 change of opinion, sometimes in accord and 

 sometimes in dissent, the unconventionality that 

 distinguished them both had full play. The 

 present Lord Tennyson has kindly supplied a 

 letter written to him by my brother, referring 

 to a 'tramp' taken with the poet through the 

 New Forest, in April 1863 : '. . . I remember 

 distinctly,' my brother wrote, ' that your father 

 carried with him a little Homer, and I, a Don 

 Quixote. I well remember, too, that he took 

 a great interest in several of the rarer birds to 

 which I called his attention, i.e. the Buzzard, 

 Pied Woodpecker, and Black Game. Besides 

 the charm of his everyday conversation, he told 

 me endless good stories, but what delighted 

 me more than anything else, was his ever-ready 

 sympathy with everyone and everything, not 

 only nihil humani . . . alienum, but every beast, 

 bird, insect, tree, and flower seemed to be full of 

 interest for him, as for me.' 



In a note to the late Duke of Argyll, 



