Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



171 



TENNYSON AND HIS WOMAN FRIEND. 



Mr. Wii.Kkiu Ward writes in the Dublin Rrciew 

 for January on Tennyson at Freshwater. He reviews 

 Lord Tennyson's account of the poet and his friends, 

 and adds reminiscences of his own. Mrs. Cameron 

 was a woman of great originaUty, a daughter of Mr. 

 Pattle, and a sister of the late Lady Somers and Lady 

 Dalrymple. 



" MV \vill'ag.\inst his will." 



She was an expert photographer and took of the 

 poet " a photo done by my will against his will." 

 She seems to have made the poet do much as she 

 would with him, the explanation being, "Tennyson 

 loved Mrs. Cameron sincerely, and was amused at 

 her intense hero-worship." She used to make him 

 show himself on occasion and do whatever she 

 thought suitable to his genius and position, while he 

 often endeavoured, half annoyed and half pleased, to 

 frustrate her design. One time, in 1873, she took it 

 into her head that he ought, like the Doge of Venice, 

 to wed the sea. She had a friend make a wreath of 

 white and red may to take the place of a ring. In 

 the end she succeeded in bringing the poet with her 

 to Freshwater Bay and making him throw the wreath 

 into the sea and speak words worthy of the occasion. 

 She was almost an otTicial mistress of ceremonies 

 for those \vho desired an interview with Tennyson. 

 Once she brought .\merican visitors to whom he 

 showed himself out of humour. She rebuked him 

 with the word^, " .Alfred, I brought them to see a 

 lion ; they did not expect to find a bear." 



VACCl.NATED NOLENS VOI.EXS. 



Here is another instance of her ascendency over 

 the poet : — 



Mrs. CiHicron wa^ profoundly interested in keeping the poet 

 well, and fit for work. One evening a friend who was dining 

 wilh her menlioned lliat there was small-pox in the neighbour- 

 hood. Mrs. Cameron started. " Alfred Tennyson has not been 

 vaccinuted for tweiiiy years," she said. " We must not lose a 

 moment." She wtTit at once in search of the village doctor, 



■k him lo Farringford, and made her way to Tennyson's 

 ■iidy. lie was l.u-y and did not want to see her, but she 

 pursued him from room lo room. In^lhe end he said : 

 " Madam, if you will leave me I will do anything you like." 

 He was vaccinated. The sequel was lold me by Tennyson 

 himself. The vaccine proved lo be bad, and he was not really 

 well again for six months ; so Mrs. Cameron's intervention did 

 not prove quite so fortunate as she had hoped. 



CARDINAL VAUOIIAN A.S SIR LA.NCELOI'. 



Once Cardinal Vaughan was at the Wards' house 

 at Weston, when Mrs. Cameron and Tennyson came 

 to lea to meet him ; — 



.Mrs. C;>meron wns, at that lime, photographing various 

 people for the char.nclcrs in the " Idylls of the King." Directly 

 she saw VaughaiiH kiiighlly face and figure she called oul to 

 Tennyson : " .Mfrcd, I have found Sir Lancelot." Tennyson, 

 not seeing to whoDi she referred, replied in deep tones : " 1 

 want a face that is well worn with evil passion." The Cardinal 

 was greatly emlwrrassed, and the company a good deal amused, 

 llul lliey were afterwards introduced to e.^ch other and had 

 much friendly conver^.uiun. 



TALKED BEST WHEN WALKING. 



Mr. Ward adds :— 



Tennyson's conversation was at its best out walking, and his 

 morning walk was an event to which his friends always keenly 

 looked forward. To one who had never met him it presented 

 some surprises. When one first heard him speak one was 

 startled by the strong Lincolnshire accent, which I fancy he 

 deliberately cultivated. ^ 



THE BEAUTY OF THE NEW WOMAN. 



M. Finot's Ideas. 

 M. Jean Finot contributes to La Revne of 

 January ist another chapter on women. 



THE CANON OF BEAUTY A FICTION. 



Entitled " The Beauty of the New Woman," the 

 article deals with the eflect which the present evolu- 

 tion of woman will have on her personality. The 

 eternal feminine is always changing, but is there ,not 

 also a continuous evolution of the eternal masculine ? 

 Men's ideas of beauty change not only because 

 women are always changing, but because men's ideas 

 about women change as women change in their ideas 

 about men. 



There are no inflexible laws which can be applied 

 to beauty. Ideas of beauty cannot be codified, for 

 beauty evolves. Present changes in the social and 

 moral conditions of humanity are going to bring about 

 the triumph of a new ideal of feminine beauty con- 

 formable to the evolution of women and to the 

 changed tastes of men. The canon of beauty, the law 

 of fixed proportions of the human body, is a fiction. 

 Such a law can onlj- have in view a normal type. 

 There arc"other points of beauty of equal importance. 



THE NEW BEAUTV. 



The changes in women's education will give us new 

 incarnations of. the beautiful. Women will become 

 stronger, bigger, but not necessarily less graceful. .\s 

 the brain of woman contains more ideas it will change 

 •^ in form and will bring in its train a modification of 

 the fac ial angles. Her intelligence strengthened by 

 contact with life will give a now expression to her 

 face, her body will be more harmonious, thanks to 

 physical exercise, and her look will be expressive of a 

 deeper inner life, She will be graceful and strong, 

 and her movements will be animated by divine 

 thought ; she will be the dispenser of noble joys, and 

 at the same time be more intimately associated with 

 our sorrows. 



\\'omen, thus transformed morally and intellectually, 

 will cease to wear clothes detrimental to their health. 

 In the dress of the future they will be more elegant 

 and at the same time more jiersonal in their taste. 

 \ beautiful soul is expressed by a beautiful face. 

 The mystery of true beauty is to be found there and 

 nowhere else. The new beauty will be expressed in 

 beings having more nobility of soul and pride in the 

 rhythm of their bodies than could be found in the old. 

 The new woman will be beautiful in a difterent way, 

 but men will be none the less sensible of her 

 charms. 



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