Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Friends and associates
It was the death of this brother that gave occasion to the verses "To J.
S." which Tennyson published in the volume then in course of preparation.
In October 1832, after unsuccessfully sitting for a Fellowship, he decided
upon another trial. Writing from Mirehouse to Thompson, he says:
I find it impossible to read here, the valleys look so independent of
circumstances. There stand the mountains, there lie the valleys, and
there is that brook which thou hast made to take its pastime therein,
a jolly old beck that has lately taken to worshipping its maker; for
it overflowed and went into the church, turning us Christians out, or
rather preventing us from going in--a better thing, inasmuch as
prevention is better than cure.
He was again unsuccessful, and Whiston was elected before him.
In the spring of this year (1833) he had written to Thompson: "Hallam
announces himself this morning as not otherwise than unwell." He had long
been delicate, and his early and sudden death at Vienna on the 15th of
September came as a shock but not a surprise to his friends. There was a
suggestion that his memory should be perpetuated by an inscription in the
College Chapel, but it came to nothing. Spedding wrote to Thompson on
November 18:
Phillips has been consulting me and others as to the propriety and
possibility of getting a tablet to Arthur Hallam's memory erected in
Trinity Chapel. Everybody approves cordially to whom he has
communicated the proposal, and he now wishes it to be known among
Hallam's friends that such a plan is in contemplation, but privately
and quietly. He will then get Christopher Wordsworth to get the
Master's permission, and then it will be time to think about the rest.
It is just possible that there may be some College etiquette or other
in the way, and it would be a pity in that case that the intention
should have been talked about publicly. Will you communicate this to
friends in Cambridge who may communicate with friends out of
Cambridge, and so there will be little difficulty in letting every one
know who is interested in the matter? Kemble can tell Trench, etc.;
Merivale, Alford, etc. Who will write to Monteith, or send me his
address? I will write to Donne myself. I think you must know every
friend of Hallam's whom I know. I have communicated with no one yet,
except those in town. You will be able to do what is fitting better
than I can tell you.
The scheme came to nothing, for what reason we do not know; possibly
"college etiquette," as Spedding anticipated, might stand in the way, for
Hallam was neither Fellow nor Scholar of the College.
In the spring of 1834 Spedding was still at Mirehouse, and gives Thompson
an account of a day and night he spent with Hartley Coleridge:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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