INTRODUCTION LIFE OF ALFRED TENNYSON ALFRED TENNYSON was born at Somersby, in Lincolnshire, England, on August 6, 1809. From his father, the Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, Rector of Somersby, a man accomplished as a poet, painter, musician, and architect, he inherited a taste for books and a high ideal of conduct. His mother was a kind-hearted, gentle woman, so kind-hearted, in fact, that, says Mrs. Thackeray-Ritchie, "the wicked inhabitants of a neighboring village used to bring their dogs to her windows and beat them in order to be bribed to leave off by the gentle lady." Alfred was the third of twelve children, of whom the two older, Frederick and Charles, became known, later, as writers of poetry of considerable merit In the quiet little village of Somersby, where the events of the greater world were unheeded, if not almost unknown, Tennyson spent his school days, playing games of strong imaginative nature, attending school at "Cooney's Village School," and cultivating a liking for books from the scholarly associations at his father's house. Here he read Scott, and came under the spell of Byron, for whom he developed such a love, that when, at the age of fifteen, he heard of the poet's death, he thought that " everything was over and finished for everyone." Life in this peaceful spot, with rambles through woods and fields, trout fishing in Holywell Glen and every kind of familiarity with country life, had its influence on Tennyson, |