'The Laureate's grievance against cheap-trippers was undoubtedly well-founded. They invaded his garden, they stole his flowers, they peered through his dining-room' windows while he was eating his lunch, Mrs, Hallam Tenny son assured us that the effrontery of these people was past belief, On. one occasion, she said, she met a party walking about the garden as though it belonged to them: a party consisting of a mother and her daughters (if I remember correctly,)
women who would have been very much offended if they had not been called Indies." "Are you aware that these are private grounds?" asked Mrs. Tennyson, don't know what you call private," returned the woman, as bold as brass, "but we've come to see Tennyson, and "Tennyson we intend to see." Such outrages appear to have been frequent during the season, No wonder the Laureate grew morbid, At the very time we were there, the Chespside watchmaker SirJohn Bennett, mooting Lord Tennyson and the Master of Balliol in a country lane, deliberately stationed himself in the middle of the thoroughfare, staring at the Laureate, in such a way that the two friends had to separate and walk round the old boor in order to continue their progress. I know thnt this is true, because the watchmaker told the tale himself,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.