Pre-Raphaelitism and the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood . poems to which I had made special allusion;his organ-like voice gave these with the fullest grandeur. Sir John Simeon frequently called at Farringford anddiscoursed of the experiences and observations of hisnaval life, all which interested the poet as much as day, when out for a stroll, we visited the descendantof the officer to whom Cromwell had consigned the care ofCharles the First when a prisoner at Carisbrook Castle,and who, from scruples as to his right to be the kingsgaoler, gave up his appointment. I had been abroad when
Pre-Raphaelitism and the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood . poems to which I had made special allusion;his organ-like voice gave these with the fullest grandeur. Sir John Simeon frequently called at Farringford anddiscoursed of the experiences and observations of hisnaval life, all which interested the poet as much as day, when out for a stroll, we visited the descendantof the officer to whom Cromwell had consigned the care ofCharles the First when a prisoner at Carisbrook Castle,and who, from scruples as to his right to be the kingsgaoler, gave up his appointment. I had been abroad when Tennyson one evening intown had read Maud to a company including some of myfriends ; but when at Farringford I had the opportunityof listening to other poems which he would speak of ashaving been composed by him on some subject whichchanced to engage our passing attention. If I remarkedthat I had never read it, his reply was that he had neverwritten the verses down but could remember them, andthis he would do, without faltering a syllable, although. PUBLIC LIBRARY VII PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD 177 often the words had been composed twenty or more yearsago. Many poems he told me he had finished andretained only in his memory. Once I offered for hisjudgment the idea of a great monarch, who sees only theglories of his rule, and not the miseries that are concealedfrom his sight, likening him to the sun, which never seesthe shadows produced by the interception of its rays. Yes, he said, the comparison is complete ; I wouldhave used it had it occurred to me, but now it would beHolman Hunts and not Alfred Tennysons. After my visit I recalled to mind many matterswhich I should have liked to discuss with this kingof gentle nature ; the opportunity of being with himalone was precious and I valued it as a sacred was profoundly impressed by the unpretendingnature of this large thinker and consummate poet, who,deeply conversant with the character and forms of pre-ceding singers
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