Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
A Key to Lord Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' By: Alfred Gatty (1813-1903) |
---|
![]()
GEORGE BELL & SONS,
LONDON: YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN
NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND
BOMBAY: 53, ESPLANADE ROAD
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO
[Illustration: Arthur H. Hallam. From a bust by Chantrey. ]
A KEY TO LORD TENNYSON'S "IN MEMORIAM"
BY ALFRED GATTY, D.D.
VICAR OF ECCLESFIELD
AND SUB DEAN OF YORK
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1900
First Published, 1881.
Second Edition, 1885; Third Edition, 1891;
Fourth Edition, 1894; Reprinted, 1897, 1900.
Dedication. TO THE CHERISHED MEMORY OF THE MOTHER OF MY CHILDREN, I DEDICATE THIS
BRIEF LABOUR OF LOVE. A. G.
PREFACE.
When any one has survived the allotted age of man, there is a long past to
remember, and a short future to expect; and it is the period of youth
which is then found most clearly recorded on the tablets of the brain the
days, probably, of school and college, and the first establishment of a
self made home. Middle life, with its work and anxieties, is by comparison only feebly
retained; as though there had been found no room for fuller records on the
preoccupied mind. But, in the indistinct interval of forty or fifty years,
the loss by death of those whom we have loved cannot be forgotten; and
when one dearer than any friend is also taken away, then, under such
bereavement, may be found an amount of comfort and support in the Poet
Laureate's In Memoriam which no other secular writing can supply. To me, this Poem has been an additional buttress to the faith, which my
education and sacred profession had sustained. When a great mind, at once so speculative and so untrammelled, runs over
the whole field of thought, and comes to the conviction that the hope of
the Christian is the one sure prospect beyond the grave; this imparts to
the mourner a consolation, to which nothing earthly can compare. My own interest in this great Poem has been farther enhanced by the fact
that I and mine, long years ago, enjoyed friendly intercourse with the
Poet at Freshwater; and this was afterwards renewed in the lives of his
younger son and mine. The incidents of the Poem have also slightly touched me, inasmuch as I was
a contemporary of Arthur H. Hallam, at Eton; and I was in Chapman's
house, at Charterhouse, with Edmund Law Lushington, when he was, at a very
early age, captain of the school. The associates of Hallam's schooldays I
well recall, for they included several who became eminent in the service
of the state, and in the ranks of literature; and most of these have now
passed away. In Memoriam has thus, in a measure, been the means of
recalling my own early youth; and I have felt that the subject of the Poem
befitted the study of my advanced life. The scenery of In Memoriam being principally laid either at Somersby or
Clevedon the birth place of the Poet or the burial place of his friend I
had long been desirous of visiting these somewhat retired spots; and my
wish has at length been gratified. After sleeping at Horncastle, we drove six miles across a flat
uninteresting country, where the fields betrayed signs of agricultural
depression, until a short steep descent brought us into a more sheltered
and wooded region, where was the sound of running water;[1] and the little
old church, with its square stumpy moss covered tower, told us that we
were in the village of Somersby "the well beloved place
Where first we gazed upon the sky." And one could well fancy that the roomy comfortable residence, in which
the Rev. Dr. Tennyson reared a large family, was a cherished home, and is
still held in fond remembrance. This house is not the Rectory, though for a long time it was so tenanted:
it is rather the Manor House of the Burton family, who for centuries[2]
have owned the land and been patrons of the living. The present possessor
now occupies it, and he received our visit of interested enquiry with much
courtesy and kindness. The house stands a little back from the road, with a drive to the door
which may be called the front entrance; though the principal rooms are
behind, and look into the garden... Continue reading book >>
|
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|