172 



The Review of Reviews. 



TENNYSON'S EARLY NEIGHBOURS. 

 Canon Rawnsley contributes a delightful paper 

 to the February Conthill on memories of the Tenny- 

 sons at Somersby. It is a beautiful picture of the 

 affectionate way in which the poet, his brothers and 

 bisters and father and mother, were regarded by the 

 village folk. 



" yUlCEN OK THE ROSEBUD GARDEN." 



Tlie Canon tells us that the originals of " rare pale 

 Margaret " and " Adeline were the Misses Bourne, 

 beauties in their day, who lived at Alford : — 



Rosa Baring, " <^)ueen of the rosebud garden of* girls," 

 although to her all poelry in those days seemed mere "jangle- 

 dom," remembered how she would hang upon the words of ihe 

 quaint, shy, long-haired young man who impressed her .as being 

 more learned and thoughtful than was common, and wiser than 

 his years. " .\lfred," she said, " was so quaint and chivalrous, 

 such a real knight amongst men, at least I always fancied so ; 

 and' though .Sophy and I used to ride over to Somersby juSt to 

 have the pleasure of pleasing liim or leasing him as the case 

 might be, and used to joke one anolher about his quaint taciturn 

 ways, which were mingled strangely with boisterous tils of fun, 

 we were as proud as peacocks to be worthy of notice by him, 

 and treasured any message he might send or any word of 

 admiration hemight let fall." 



k"AlRY FAIRY LILIAN." 



As lor my .\unt Sophy, the original of " .\iry fairy Lilian," 

 as the family tradition has it, she never quile got over the kind 

 of awe with which Tennyson inspired her as a young man, Ijut 

 she said " he was so interesting because he was so unlike other 

 young men, and his unconventionality of manner and dress had 

 a charm which made him more acceptable than the dapper young 

 gentlemen of ordinary type at ball or supper party. He w.as 

 a splendid dancer, for he loved music and kept such time. 

 Most girls were friglUenetl of him. I was never afraid of the 

 man, but of his mind. He once told my brother that at the 

 age of sixty he had well-nigh danced a girl oft her feet, and was 

 not a bit dizzy at the end of it." 



THE POEt'.S father. 



A Somersby villager said that the poet's father 

 had a voice like a "horgin," and was "the clivverest man i' 

 the county. \ great scholard as taught all his boys hissen, 

 would not let other folks do it — laught them hissen, he did. 

 Theer w.as a great family of them to wear him, one died a 

 babby and there was eleven left," and the old man went over 

 the names of them all, and then added, *' It was study as wore 

 out th' owd doctor. lie wouldn't 'low other fwoaks to school 

 his bairns." 



The villagers said : — 



Such fine, up-straight men they all were ; such heads of hair, 

 and such a walk, wilhoul never a bounce of pride in tlieni ; 

 always in and out of Ihe cottages, and never forgot their servants, 

 and generally with books in their hands. 



" A ROUGH 'UN, MR. HALFRED. " 



An old woman, speaking of the family, says : — ■ 

 But as for Mr. Halfred, he was a 'daciousone. He used to be 

 walking up and down the carriage-drive hundreds of times a 

 day, shouting and holloaing and lueaching, with a book always 

 in his hand ; and such a lad for making ?ad work of his clothes. 

 He never seemed to care how he was dressed or what he had 

 on — " down on his heels," and " his coat unlaced and his hair 

 anyhow." He was a rough 'un was .Mister Halfred. and no 

 mistake. 



AI.MO.ST A WESl.EVAN ! 



Some of the old folks remembered a Wesleyan 

 minister 

 who "Mr. Halfred used to have a deal o' lalk with i' them 



daays, and he said he wud go to church to 'comnioJate his 

 mother, but be wud well have liked to get oop a nieetin' 

 hissen." 



The old parish sexton, as he told me of this, added, " He 

 was quite a religious young man was Mr. Halfred, you know ; 

 leastways, would have been if he had been dragged up by the 

 Wcsleyans, you know." 



"all THOWT he was CRAZED." 



The Canon gives a veri. vivid picture of an old 

 inhabitant at Gibraltar Point who could not believe 

 that Mr. Alfred was now " wuth thousands by his 

 potry," and who tells how her man was coming home 

 in the morning early : — 



Who should he light on biit Mr. Alfred, a-raavin' and taSvin' 

 upon the sand-hills in his shirtsleeves an' all ; and Mr. Alfred 

 said, saiiys he, " Good morning," saiiys he ; and my man saays, 

 " Thou poor fool, thou doesn't knaw morning from night " ; 

 for you know, sir, i' them daays we all thowt he was craazed. 

 Weil, well ! .Xnd the Queen wants to maake him a lord, 

 poor thing ! Well, I nivver did hear the likes 0' that, for sarten 

 sewerness." 



GENTLEMEN AND AN EIGHT HOURS' DAY. 



Mr. Siethen Gwvnn in the February Conihill, 

 bidding farewell to the land, contributes much sound 

 sense and shrewd wisdom : — 



Gentlemen talk airily about an eight hours' or a ten hours' 

 day ; but do they know what it means ? I have heard able 

 editors declaring that they themselves wished greatly they could 

 get off wilh an eight liours' shift. I have even heard members 

 of I'.uliament declaring that their Parliamentary labours (s.ave 

 the mark) are often extended beyond that limit— as if that had 

 something to do with the matter ! It would really be a great 

 and blessed thing if every educated man knew by bodily experi- 

 ence what it meant to dig eight hours and get half a crown 

 for it. 



The learner would have to be taken, early. No man of 

 middle age could, I ihink, do a reasonable day's spade-work 

 without going near to kill himself, unless he had been broke 

 to it in boyhood. But even a couple of hours, or, better still, 

 the task which an ordinary labourer will accomplish in two 

 hours, would teach a man what labour me.ans, and should, if he 

 is a decent man, leach him to feel that sense of inferiority 

 which the swimmer inspires among those who must drown if 

 they fall in. 



THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SOIL. 



He also says : — 



Living on the land gave me full confidence (not that I ever 

 lacked it) not merely to deny, but to ridicule and spit upon an 

 opinion which often enough is put forward. A "gentleman" 

 (to speak by the card), it is said, lowers himself in the eyes of 

 working people if he puts his hand to servile labour, God help 

 us all, if that were so ! For my own part, though it had become 

 natural for my men to send for nic without more .ado when an 

 exira hand was needed in .any sudden pressure, and to save up 

 things which needed extra help till I should be available, no 

 one ever got more ungiudging service or better value for wages 

 paid ; and I think 1 got more thin service, as cerlainiy I g.ave 

 more than wages. I think our liking and respect were mutual. 

 If to-d.iy we breed " class-conscious .Socialists,"' that is because 

 yearly fewer of us, gentle and simple, live together on the land. 



Mr. Gwynn says that " by owning a farm, by 

 having a voice in the working of it, by putting my 

 hand to all the elementary activities, 1 did find 

 myself brought nearer to the central facts of life, and 

 nearer to the men I employed. Comradeship was 

 established." 



