I can remember all my Father's pleasure when Alfred Tennyson gave him "Tithonus" for one of the early numbers of the _Cornhill Magazine_. He was once at Farringford, but this was before the time of the _Cornhill_. From America, where people store their kindly records and from whence so many echoes of the past are apt to reach us again,--some in worthy, and some, I fear, in less worthy voices,--I have received from time to time, the gift of an hour from the past, vivid and unalloyed. One day in the _Century_ magazine, I came upon a page which retold for me the whole story of a happy hour and of my Father's affectionate regard for that chivalrous American, Bayard Taylor, who came to see him, and for whom he had wished to do his best, by sending him to Farringford. All this came back to me when Alfred Tennyson's letter was reproduced in the _Century_, his charming answer to my Father, and my Father's own note in the margin.... Bayard Taylor himself has put the date to it all--June 1857. My Father writes to Bayard Taylor: MY DEAR B. T.--I was so busy yesterday that I could not keep my agreeable appointment with Thompson, and am glad I didn't fetch you to Greenwich. Here's a note which concerns you and I am ever yours, W. M. T. * * * * * The letter from Lord Tennyson runs as follows: FARRINGFORD, I.W. MY DEAR THACKERAY--Your American friend and poet-traveller has never arrived; he has, I suppose, changed his mind. I am sure I should have been very glad to see him, for my castle was never yet barricaded and entrenched against good fellows. I write now, this time to say that after the 30th I shall not be here. My best remembrances to your daughters, whom I have twice seen, once as little girls, and again a year or so back.--Yours ever, A. TENNYSON. * * * * * Afterwards Bayard Taylor found his way to Farringford, and he has written a happy account of the visit.[26] * * * * *