Footnotes

• The devoted, mutually sympathetic friendship between Tennyson and Victoria, caught so charmingly in Max Beerbohm's caricature of him reading to her, is well known, and is clearly reflected in the present letter. Shortly after Prince Albert's death, Tennyson had made his first visit to the Queen and In Memoriam was to be 'the only book, besides religious books, to which Her Majesty turns for comfort' and like theIdylls of the King with its 'glorious' tribute to Albert, 'soothed her aching bleeding heart.' At the time of John Brown's death, Victoria read In Memoriam again and Tennyson wrote the two lines for the pedestal of the bronze statue of Brown. Tennyson was delighted 'with the breadth and freedom and penetration of her mind'; she was 'struck by the greatness and largeness of his.' Emily Tennyson noted that 'The Queen's manner towards him is child-like and charming, and they both express their opinions freely.' It has been said that 'in a sense, and in part, Tennyson during his last phase, filled Brown's place' (Charles Tennyson, Dear and Honoured Lady). On his death, Victoria wrote of her grief 'that the great poet and kind friend has left this world...[he] was always very kind and sympathising to me, quite remarkably so.' Tennyson was a pall-bearer at the funeral of Lady Augusta who had married Dean Stanley in December 1863.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts