{12a} “Eothen,” p. 33. Reading “Timbuctoo” to-day one is amazed it should have gained the prize. Two short passages adumbrate the coming Tennyson, the rest is mystic nonsense. “What do you think of Tennyson’s prize poem?” writes Charles Wordsworth to his brother Christopher. “Had it been sent up at Oxford, the author would have had a better chance of spending a few months at a lunatic asylum than of obtaining the Prize.” A current Cambridge story at the time explained the selection. There were three examiners, the Vice-Chancellor, a man of arbitrary temper, with whom his juniors hesitated to disagree; a classical professor unversed in English Literature; a mathematical professor indifferent to all literature. The letter _g_ was to signify approval, the letter _b_ to brand it with rejection. Tennyson’s manuscript came from the Vice-Chancellor scored all over with _g_’s. The classical professor failed to see its merit, but bowed to the Vice-Chancellor, and added his _g_. The mathematical professor could not admire, but since both his colleagues ordained it, good it must be, and his _g_ made the award unanimous. The three met soon after, and the Vice-Chancellor, in his blatant way, attacked the other two for admiring a trashy poem. “Why,” they remonstrated, “you covered it with _g_’s yourself.” “_G_’s,” said he, “they were _q_’s for queries; I could not understand a line of it.” {12b} “Enoch Arden,” p. 34. {13} “Eothen,” p. 169. Reprint by Bell and Sons, 1898. {14a} “Eothen,” p. 17. {14b} His deferential regard for army rank was like that of Johnson for bishops. Great was his indignation when the “grotesque Salvation Army,” as he called it, adopted military nomenclature. “I would let those ragamuffins call themselves saints, angels, prophets, cherubim, Olympian gods and goddesses if they like; but their pretension in taking the rank of officers in the army is to me beyond measure repulsive.” {14c} “Eothen,” p. 190 in first edition. It was struck out in the fourth edition. {22} “Eothen,” p. 18. Reprint by Bell and Sons, 1898. {28} He is very fond of this word; it occurs eleven times. {37} “Quarterly Review,” December, 1844. {38a} “Eothen,” p. 46. {38b} Poitier’s “Vaudeville.” {40} One characteristic anecdote he omits. Two French officers were attached to our headquarters; and the staff were partly embarrassed and partly amused by Lord Raglan’s inveterate habit, due to old Peninsular associations, of calling the enemy “the French” in the presence of our foreign guests. {47} Some of us can recall the lines in which Sir G. Trevelyan commemorated “The Owl’s” nocturnal flights: