. Memories of the Tennysons . No pompous gateway, nopretentious lodge—a simple gate, such as might befound at the entrance of any farm in the simple drive up through the meadow, with the bigthatched lowly cottages of the Home Farm nestlingaway under the trees on our right, and then, beyondthe ilex and the pines, a simple, unassuming housefront, or perhaps, more accurately, house back, withquiet entrance and unpretentious hall. How well I remember the poets greeting! Nowcome to the light. Whose eyes have you ? Ah, Isee ; a son of your mother,—a Franklin. Well, Iveread your sonnets, a
. Memories of the Tennysons . No pompous gateway, nopretentious lodge—a simple gate, such as might befound at the entrance of any farm in the simple drive up through the meadow, with the bigthatched lowly cottages of the Home Farm nestlingaway under the trees on our right, and then, beyondthe ilex and the pines, a simple, unassuming housefront, or perhaps, more accurately, house back, withquiet entrance and unpretentious hall. How well I remember the poets greeting! Nowcome to the light. Whose eyes have you ? Ah, Isee ; a son of your mother,—a Franklin. Well, Iveread your sonnets, and I know you like what I like,and saying this he led me up to his den, as he calledit, and in a very few moments was reading a bit ofwork he was busy upon—the making of an epitaphfor the De Redcliffe statue in the Abbey. I hate doing this kind of thing, he said ; butthey bother one out of ones life if one refuses. It isthe best way to peace. I never wrote but one thatwas at all to my mind, and that was to your great-. a MEMORIES OF FARRINGFORD. 95 uncle, Sir John Franklin, and he recited as he spoke : Not here ! the white North has thy bones ; and thou,Heroic sailor soul. He read me three alternatives for the epitaphhe was engaged upon, and it was very interestingto hear him speak of the pros and cons of the wordarrangements. The first began : De Redcliffe, now thy long days work hath ceased,Stand here among our noblest and our best. The second was like it, but with a difference ofarransfement: S Stand here, among our noblest and our best,De Redcliffe, now thy long days work hath ceased. And he was in doubt as to whether he should, in the second couplet, write : Silent, in this great minster of the West,Who wast the voice of England in the East. or, Silent, in this great minster of the West,But once the voice of England in the East. He was not satisfied—the rhymes of the quatrainwere too nearly akin ; but he wished to emphasisethe difference between West and East, and
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