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The Life and Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Life and Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson Author:Alfred Tennyson Tennyson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III TOUR IN SWITZERLAND (1869); ALSO SOME OPINIONS ON POETRY Mr. Frederick Locker-lampson kindly gave me the following account of his travels with ... more »my father : I am proud to have won the friendship of Alfred Tennyson, " quella fonte che spande di parlar si largo flume." I first met him in Publisher Moxon's Dover Street parlour. Shortly afterwards, I think about 1864 or 1865, I stayed with him at Grayshott Hall, near Haslemere. We were cordial, we soon became intimate. I rejoice to think we have always remained so. I have often visited Tennyson at Farringford and at Aldworth, and not seldom he has been my guest. We have not met so constantly of late years. Before Hallam and Lionel Tennyson grew up, I used to see a good deal of him in London, for to be near us at 91 Victoria Street he secured a pied-a-terre in Albert Mansions opposite. It was from there that we sallied forth together to see many of his old friends, among others Carlyle, Froude and Mr. Gladstone, and we often took morning walks in the Parks and Kensington Gardens. Tennyson and I have made two successful little tours together, to Paris in December 1868, and throughFrance to Switzerland in June and July, 1869. We also met at St. Moritz in 1873. I found him an exceedingly amiable and most interesting travelling companion. It was thus that the first tour came about. Tennyson had not been out of England for eight years or more, and we agreed that it would be very pleasant to go abroad together, if only for a week ; so without more ado, we arranged that on the coming Saturday, the 28th November, he should pick me up at 91 Victoria Street, that we should catch the 4.30 p.m. train at Victoria Station (you see we were precise), and that we should sleep at Dover. At four o'clock on the day appointed...« less