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A Biographical Sketch

BY

HENRY J. JENNINGS

AUTHOR OF "CARDINAL NEWMAN; THE STORY OF HIS LIFE,"
"CURIOSITIES OF CRITICISM,' ETC.

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PREFACE.

MOST students of Tennyson have, at some time or other, felt the want of an accurate and fairly complete account of the poet's life; and as contemporary biography is now the vogue, no apology, it may be hoped, is needed for the present modest attempt to supply that want, at least until the time comes for a more exhaustive

undertaking. Without disparaging existing attempts in the same direction, I may claim for the following pages that they contain much more information respecting Lord Tennyson than has hitherto been published in a connected form. Particular pains have been taken to render the record trustworthy, even to the rigid exclusion

of anecdotes, more or less familiar, which were proved on inquiry to have had no foundation

in fact.

Wherever it has been possible, I have let those who knew the poet personally in his younger days speak of him in their own words; and with a desire to give a true portrait, I have not hesitated to quote freely from any sources that could contribute faithful details either of story or character.

Without attempting to hide my own admiration of Tennyson's writings, I have not presumed to encumber this little work with any efforts at elaborate or analytical criticism; the incidental opinions I have ventured to express cannot, therefore, be regarded as in any sense adequate to the requirements of fully appreciative literary judg

ments.

Even were the public incidents of Lord Tennyson's life far more numerous and exciting than they are, it would still be to his poetry that one

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