7 am glad that you thought of me at Kilkee The blind wave feeling round his long by the great deeps. The sea is my delight ..." sea-hall (Tennyson to de Vere, October 1849) in silence'.lz

The poet had to abandon his plans to visit Dingle and Glengarriff (A.T. wrote 'Glengarry') 'for want of time'.13 By mid- September he was at the Victoria Hotel, Killarney,I4 from whence he wrote two letters to de Vere, presumably on the lfred Tennyson, (A.T.), poet same day. He arrived at Cork by but not yet Poet Laureate or Thursday, 22nd September, from which Lord (these honours would port he sailed for Bristol on the following follow later in 1850 and in day. Such are the meagre facts concerning 1884 respectively), paid A.T.'s first Irish tour. He does not state three visits in 1842, 1848 and 1878 to that that he visited Sir Aubrey at Curragh "dreadful countsy",l that "horrible island"2 Chase, which seems strange, and one - - which he wished was in the would think that had he done so, he would middle of the Atlanticn,j and if not below have mentioned it when writing to Sir the surface of that ocean, at least "a Aubrey's son. On the other hand the late thousand miles away from Englandn.4 great Kilkee historian, Monsignor Ignatius As Hallam Tennyson, eldest son and Murphy, stated (in an article "Kilkee", secretary to the poet, intimated in the published in All About Kilkee, Kilkee Memoir,Vnformation on the Irish visits of Development Association, 1982, 73) that 1842 and 1848 was very limited, though "Lord Tennyson, the poet visited Kilkee we have more documentation for his 1878 several times and stayed at Moose's Hotel. visit. However the publication of the first With Tennyson was his poet friend and volume of Tennyson's Letters in 1982, ably Alfred Tennyson. more frequent visitor, Sir Aubrey de edited by Lang and Shann~n,~has given Vere". As Sir Aubrey died in 1846, Fr. us some new information about the earlier lodged, but were unable to find each other Murphy's statement must refer to the 1842 tours but has added nothing further on as Alfred forgot to give Aubrey his friend's visit. As Moose's Hotel did not open until A.T.'s Kilkee visits. address. In fact when writing later to de the summer of 1843,15local tradition at It was Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814- Vere (who was still in England) from Kilkee that Tennyson stayed at the West 1902), poet - son of another bard and Killarney in mid-September, A.T. again End may be correct - Sykes' House has baronet, Sir Aubrey de Vere of Curragh forgot to give Aubrey his friend's address, been mentioned and this was probably Chase (the de Veres wrote "Currah'), Co. which necessitated a second epistle from tsue also for A.T.'s 1848 visit. Kilkee is not Limerick, who first suggested to A.T. that there with the required information. mentioned by A.T. in his (surviving) he should visit Ireland in the autumn of Thus it was that A.T. set off alone by correspondence of 1842. It should be 1842. de Vere went to Cambridge ten the Liverpool packet on the Irish Sea noted, however, that A.T.'s letters to his years after A.T. entered and there the crossing to , where he arrived early friends at this time are generally brief and Limerickman made lasting friendships on the morning of Thursday, the 8th appear rushed. He gives no information with Thackeray, Edward FitzGerald, September.9 From there he wrote to on, or description of, the places he visited Carlyle, Frederick Pollock, Spedding and Henry Lushington's brother, Edmund - beyond stating that he was there, nor does others. Aubrey, like his father, was a great "What with rain in the distance and he mention meeting any Irish or Anglo- admirer and friend of Wordsworth, and he hypochondriacs in the foreground I feel Irish people. His 1842 letters give the it was who first introduced A.T. to the poet very crazy. God help all".1° He left that impression of one preoccupied with whom he would eventually succeed in the night for Limerick. His plan of itinerary business affairs. While on his one-day Laureatship. Like Wordsworth, de Vere was to go via Limerick to Killarney, but we Dublin visit he wrote that 500 of his was also friendly with Sara Coleridge, only know from one of his letters that he visited books16 were sold and he hoped that "the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Ballybunnion caves (or 'Ballybunion' wood-works17 would make a sensation". both members of Wordsworth's circle. de as A.T. wrote it) "but could not get into the They did not, and they proved a bad Vere has stated that it was "in 1841 or finest on account of the weather".ll investment for A.T. as well as for his 1842 that I first met the P~et".~Certainly However, Hallam Tennyson tells us that in family. both were corresponding by July 1842.8 one of these caves 'he made the following Referring to Kilkee in his Lost Ireland, Prior to their intended Irish tour they had lines which occur in Merlin and Vivien. Laurence O'Connor wrote: "In 1842 arranged to meet in late August or early Tennyson mooched around here alone, September '42 at Henry Lushington's 'So dark a forethought rolled about his having failed to contact his fellow poet rooms at Mitre Court Buildings, The brain, Aubrey de Vere".18 No source-reference Temple, London, where A.T. sometimes As on a dull day in an ocean cave for this statement is given. Likewise, Brendan Lehane stated that "Tennyson came here [Kilkee] twice",lg again without source. Another article in All About Kilkee stated that "Lord Tennyson visited Kilkee three times"20 and added, incorrectly, that Alfred Perceval Graves "met Tennyson one day at the Pollock Hole~",~1which error has been verified (perhaps with poetic licence which often dispenses with historical accuracy) by Chriostoir O'Flynn:

"Here Alfred Percival [sic!] Graves Met Lord Tennyson ..."22

Another modern Irish poet, James Liddy (who was born within a few hundred yards of the aforementioned Pollock Holes) has referred to "the three segre- gated swimming pools - the Pollock Holes - in which Tennyson and a multiplicity of bishops used to take plunges ir1."~3The latter statement is correct, the former without foundation and a misreading of what Graves actually wrote. These statements about A.T. meeting Graves at Kilkee refer to the Poet Laureates last visit Mt. Trenchard, near Foynes, c.1900. to Kilkee in 1878 and shall be dealt with Photo by Philip G. Hunt. (Limerick Museum) under that heading. Cruise's hotelHZ8at Limerick. Here he carving by machinery' scheme.34He was visited a book-shop and in another shop, now being lionised in London, 'bedined he tells usz9 "I went to buy some of the usque ad nauseum', he said.35 He had Another English literary figure who was pretty Limerick gloves, (they are chiefly written to Edward FitzGerald that he also on an Irish tour in 1842 was William made, as I have since discovered, at planned to go to Italy "if I could find Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), a Cork). I think the man who sold them had anybody to go with me, which I can't, so I friend of both Tennyson and de Vere. a patent from the Queen, or His Excell- suppose I shan't go, which makes me hate Thackeray was A.T.'s junior by two years ency, or both, in his window: but, seeing a myself and all the worldn.j6 He also felt, and although both were in Ireland at the friend pass just as I entered the shop, he according to Hallam Tennyson, about this same time, they do not appear to have brushed past, and held his friend in time, a desire for "a lonely sojourn at met. Thackeray spent a much longer time conversation for some minutes in the B~de".~~"I hear", he said, "that there are in Ireland. Thackeray, who had some street - about the Killarney races, no larger waves there than on any other part strange and eccentric family connections doubt, or the fun going on at Kilkee. I of the British coast: and must go thither with some Co. Cork gentry, was in Ireland might have swept away a bagful of walnut- and be alone with God".38 However, de from July to November, travelling from shells,jOcontaining the flimsy gloves; but Vere persuaded him to visit his family Dublin to Cork (where he reached before instead walked out, making him a low- home at Curragh Chase. He had missed the 23rd July) via Rathcoole, Naas, bow, and saying I would call next week. Tennyson on his lonely visit six years Kilcullen, Carlow and Waterford. He spent He said, wouldn't I wait? and resumed his earlier. de Vere told A.T. that the waves several days in Cork and journeyed on to conversation; and, no doubt, by this way of were far higher in Ireland than at Bude, Killarney (he was there on the 15th doing business, is making a handsome "and the cliffs often rise to 800 feet and in August) via Bandon, Skibbereen, Bantry, independence." Thackeray travelled on to one spot, Slieve League, to 2,000".3gA.T. Glengarriff and Kenmare, where he took a Gort (via Ennis, which he described) and however, set conditions for his stay at jig to Tarbert. Here he boarded, probably from Gort to Galway, from whence he Curragh Chase before he consented to on the 16th or 17th August, a steam-boat returned to Dublin by way of Clifden and visit. There was to be no mention of Irish which he does not name but which was the bay of Westport - 'a miracle of distress, a subject dear to de Vere who either the GarryowenZ4or the Erin. beauty.'31 He wrote "from Clifden through had just published "English Misdeeds and Although he makes no mention of Glin the Joyce country to Westport which is far Irish Misrule", a book which the English Castle and village, he would have passed the most beautiful thing I have seen poet found "from the little I have read very both on his way up to Limerick. "I can't anywhere in Europe I think."32 He spent clever".40 He was also to be allowed to attempt to describe the Shannon", he most of September in Dublin and devoted breakfast alone and not to be expected wrote,25 "only to say that on board the October to northern Ireland (he wrote downstairs for the morning meal. He was steam-boat there was a piper2%nd a "Peg of Limavady" after a visit to that to be allowed half the day for writing, and bugler,27 a hundred of genteel persons town) and, after a few more days in Dublin he might smoke in the house.41 Having coming back from donkey-riding and on his return from the north, sailed for agreed to these conditions de Vere and his bathing at Kilkee, a couple of heaps of raw London on November 1st. friend set off for Ireland. We do not know hides that smelt very foully, a score of the date or month but it was probably women nursing children, and a lobster- towards the end of January or early in vendor, who vowed to me on his honour February. It was certainly not "early in that he gave eight pence-a-piece for his January" as a recent biographer, Martin?" fish, and that he had boiled them only the By January 1848 Tennyson's fame as a has stated. It was sometime after the 15th day before; but when I produced the major poet had risen greatly. His ,33 of January.43de Vere has written that A.T. guide-book, and solemnly told him to originally in two slim volumes, had "passed five weeks with us at Curragh swear upon that to the truth of his reached their fifth edition and since 1846 Chase, to us delightful weeksX.44The day statement, the lobster-seller turned away, he was in receipt of a Civil List pension of before their arrival there was spent at the quite abashed, and would not be brought £300 p.a., which in a large measure made famous Castleconnell Falls on the to support his previous assertion at all". up for the loss of his small capital back in Shannon, and they slept that night at Old He speaks of "the excellence of Mr. 1842 through a bad investment in a 'wood- Church, 'a large house on the Clare side of the River Shannon, near Barrington's Pier, ~i~erick',4Vhehome of de Vere's sister, Elinor, who was married to the Hon. Robert O'Brien, a member of the Dromoland family. Sir Aubrey de Vere had died in 1846 and Aubrey's eldest brother, Vere Edmund de Vere, was now the third baronet of Curragh Chase. 'We drove our guest to the old castles and abbeys in the neighbourhood: he was shocked at the poverty of the peasantry and the marks of havoc wrought through the country by the great potato-famine: he read in the library, and worked on a new edition of The Princess, smoking at the same time with- out hindrance in our most comfortable bedroom, and protected as far as possible from noise; he walked where he pleased alone, or in company through woods in which it was easy to lose oneself, by a cave so deep that Merlin might have slept in it to this day unawakened. In the evenings, he had vocal music from Lady de Vere46 and her sister, Caroline Standi~h~~and Lawrence postcard showing Beltard, Kilkee. Posted in 1910. Sonatas of Mozart or Beethoven played by (Limerick Museum) my eldest brother,@with a power and a pathos rare in an amateur. Later, he read Ireland was to see high cliffs and tall Wells from a man with the unlikely Irish poetry to us with a voice that doubled its waves and de Vere decided to send the name of Bewicke Blackburne, who power, commonly choosing pathetic English poet to his cousin Maurice remembered the poet's visit of 1848 to ~ieces;and on one occasion after finishing FitzGerald, Knight of Kerry, at Valencia. Valencia, which read: "Long life to your A Sorrowful Tale by Crabbe, glanced On his way there, de Vere accompanied honour", as Irish peasants used to say, and round reproachfully and said, "I do not see him as far as Mount Trenchard, the home so say I, the man who was working the that any of you are weeping!" One night of Lord Monteagle," where Tennyson State [sic. recte Slate] quarry, on the island we turned his poem The Day-Dream into slept and de Vere adds "I led him to the of Valencia when you spent a few days an acted charade; a beautiful girl whom he summit of Knock Patrick, the furthest spot there in 1848, Chartist times in London used to call "that stately maid, taking the in the South West to which Ireland's and Fenian times in Ireland. I remember part of the Sleeping Beauty; and the poet Apostle, Patriarch and Patron, advanced ... your telling us, not without some glee, himself that of the Prince who broke the The sunset was one of extraordinary but how a Valencia Fenian stealthily dogged spell of her slumber. Another night there minatory beauty. It gave, I remember, a your footsteps up to the mountain and was a dance which he denounced as a darksome glory to the vast and desolate coming at last close to your ear, whisp- stupid thing, while a brilliant and amusing exDanses with all its creeks and inlets ered, "Be you from France?" person, Lady G,49 who was accustomed to frdm the Shannon, lighted the green "Your onorous reading to us after speak her mind to all alike, scolded him islands in the mouth of the Fergus, fired dinner sundry truculent passages in sharply. "How would the world get on if the ruined Castle of Shanid, a stronghold Daniel O'Connell's History of Ireland, others went about growling at its of the Desmonds, one of a hundred which which happened to be lying on my table, amusements in a voice as deep as a lions? they were said to have possessed. The has lingered in my ears ever since. Seeing I request that you will go upstairs, put on western clouds hung low, a mass of among my few books all that your friend an evening coat, and ask my daughter crimson and gold; which, from a ledge of a Carlyle had up to that time published, you Sophias0 to dance". He did so, and was the nearer one, down plunged a glittering told me you thought he had nothing more gayest of the gay for several hours, flood empurpled like wine. The scene was to say. I was often reminded of this whilst turning out moreover an excellent dancer. a thoroughly Irish one; and gave a stormy reading his subsequent Cromwell and He was liked all the better for always welcome to the Sassanach Bard. The next Frederick and Latter Days, and how near saying what came into his head. One day a morning he pursued his way alone to that was to the truth. You will hardly have young lady who sat next to him at Valencia .. . "53 forgotten the old Knight of Kerry, the dinner, spoke of a certain marriage just While there he was guest of the Knight owner of the Island, his dignified presence announced, as a very penniless one. He of Kerry, then aged seventy-five, a and his redolence of Grattan and Curran rummaged in his pocket, extracted a member of the old Irish Parliament and a and Castlereagh and the Irish Parliament penny, and slapped it down loudly close to close friend to the Duke of Wellington and in which he sat for many years. I don't his plate saying, "There, I give you that, a just and popular landlord. de Vere know whether "the rude imperious surge" for that is the God you worship". The girl described him: "as chivalrous a represen- which lashes the sounding shore of the was a little frightened, but more pused: tative of Desmond's great Norman House Island ever drew from you, as I had hoped, they made friends; and he promised to as it ever put forth in those times when it some "hoarse rough verse", some of that send her a pocket copy of Milton. Some fought side by side with the greatest roar, which tells us, as "music tells us, of months later she received one from Gaelic Houses, for Ireland's ancient faith, what in all our life we have never known, England, beautifully bound ..."51 and the immemorial rights of its and never will know ..."56 While de Vere appears to have been Palatinate."S4Among the poet's descriptive Tennyson was apparently delighted the perfect host their guest appears to jottings are the following lines: with the seas off Valencia. His son wrote: have remained an awkward one, growling "He never cared greatly for the sea on the at what he disapproved of and becoming "Ofiend, the great deeps of Eternity south coast of England; 'not a grand sea', truculently British in that time of the Roar only round the wasting isle of he would say, 'only an angry curt sea. It Young Irelanders - the leader of which Time'55 seems to shrink as it recoils with the movement, William Smith O'Brien, was inspired by Bray Head on Valencia. pebbles along the shore; the finest seas I related to the de Veres (who would not have ever seen are at Valencia, Mable- have approved of O'Brien's later rebellion) On A.T.'s 82nd birthday (6th August, thorpe, and in West . At Valencia by marriage. A.T.'s aim in coming to 1891) he received a letter from Tunbridge the sea was grand, without any wind blowing and seemingly without a wave; but with the momentum of the Atlantic behind, it dashes up into foam, blue diamonds it looks like, all along the rocks, like ghosts playing at hide and seek ..."'S7 According to Graves, who met A.T. at Kilkee in 1878, the Poet Laureate "talked a good deal of that visit to Kerry, of the scenery and of the people. "It was in 1848, the year of revolutions, and the political electricity had even penetrated to Valencia; and Tennyson, while studying the Atlantic breakers from the mountain, was curiously followed up by a conspirator, attracted no doubt by his distinctly un-English dress and appearance. The man finally closed upon Tennyson and whispered in his ear, 'Be you from France?' ..."S8 Graves also mentions the poet's other Lawrence postcard showing Bishops' Island, Kilkee, c.1905. journeyings in Kerry: (Limerick Museum) "He told me of his drive to see a waterfall on Hungry Hill, and of an sixpence that had made the woman but probably written in February or amusing conversation he had with the grateful, expressed my astonishment at March, as Lang and Shannon suggest.66 It carman, a Celt of the type of Daniel such gratitude. "It was not the sixpence, is headed "Currah Chase, Adare, Ireland", O'Connell ... so distinguished-looking your honour, it was the stranger's gift". and beyond this address has no further indeed that when he claimed the closest And Graves adds: "My recollection of the reference to Tennyson's Irish visit. It was connection with the great old families of story as told to me is a slight variant upon addressed to the American Philip James McCarthy More and the O'Sullivan Bear, this version. According to it the woman Bailey, the author of Festus. and emphasised the statement by the cried out something in Irish, and Tenny- de Vere has stated that Tennyson spent production of a ponderous old seal con- son asked the driver for its meaning when "five weeks" at Curragh Chase but a letter taining their arms quartered together, they got outside, on which he replied, 'She written from "Boulge", and dated "May 4, Tennyson felt quite inclined to believe his was blessing God, your honour, that the 1848" from Edward FitzGerald to final contention that if he had his rights he child's hand had been crossed with silver Frederick Tennyson, the poet's brother, should be reigning in these parts. 'He by the dark-haired stranger'. And certainly suggests that Tennyson was still (May looked an Irish chief, said Tennyson; and I don't remember in Tennyson's version of 1848) in Ireland. At the end of May (1848) though the poet did not tell me so at the the story as told me that claim to the A.T. went to Cornwall after "about three time, his driver, it appears, on being kingdom of Connaught was made by the months" in Ireland67: "I had a note from rallied by the waiter after returning to the driver. Even in fun, a McCarthy or an Alfred three months ago. He was then in inn from which they had driven, for O'Sullivan would never have advanced London: but is now in Ireland, I think. talking to the gentleman of his 'great such a claim. Tennyson saw I was much adding to his new poem, the Princess ..."G" blood', drew himself up, answering, 'The affected by his story, which was very Later in the following year (1849) A.T. gentleman is a gentleman, every inch of strikingly told, and said, 'There! you must visited the Burns' country in Scotland and him'. Noblesse oblige ..."59 Of this meeting make a poem out of The Stranger's Gifl.61 on his return wrote to de Vere from of the Poet with the royal jarvey, Francis Graves later re-told the latter part of The Cheltenham in October (Lang and MacManus has written that Tennyson Stranger's Gift in his autobiography To Shannon, give the date correctly as "reached no further into the hearts of the Return To All That: "As I remember the 'October [2, 18491'). It was clearly written people than a meeting with a top-of-the- story, the bard asked the driver what the in 1849 - the date (1848) given by Hallam morning - your honour jarveyn.60 woman meant by 'The stranger's gift', that Tenny~on~~and by Graves70 is incorrect. In Graves also mentions another meeting the child's hand had been crossed with it Tennyson wrote: "I am glad that you of Tennyson with some of the native Irish: silver by the dark-haired stranger', a have thought of me at Kilkee by the great " ... and on that drive in search of one combination which was supposed to bring deeps. The sea is my delight ..."71This, as waterfall it had rained such cataracts that a special luck. Besides, I am quite sure the Graves has pointed out, "seems to show they were fain to take shelter in a driver could not have claimed to be the that he had visited the spot in the previous wretched little roadside shealing occupied 'King of Connaught', for no descendant of summer, (sic!) when the guest of his by a poor woman and her little son an O'Sullivan would have made such a brother poet at Curragh Chasen.72 We do Johnny. To use Tennyson's own words: boast".62 not know where Tennyson or de Vere "'The "King of Connaught" dried my In 1848 Tennyson again visited stayed when at Kilkee in 1848. It may, if stockings and went to sleep on a bench. Killarney "but remained there only a few local tradition is correct, have been at The woman drew me up a stool to the turf days; yet the visit bequeathed a memorial. Sykes' house in the West End, a house in fire with the courtly air of a queen. While The echoes of the bugle at Killarney on which Marconi stayed later. It is clear that he was asleep I heard the mother say to that loveliest of lakes inspired the song they did not stay at the premier hotel in the boy "Johnny" several times - she didn't introduced into the later editions of The the resort - Moore's Hotel, which in speak a word of English. The King awoke, Princess, beginning: 1848 did not open until J~ne.~3Beyond and, as we were going out, I said "Johnny" "The Splendour falls on castle walls'63 Tennyson's obscure reference to Kilkee and the little boy with a protuberant This was added for the third edition of quoted above, no account of his 1848 visit paunch (protuberant, I suppose, from The Princess in 1853. A.T. noted 'Written to Kilkee has survived. eating potatoes) ran forward and I gave after hearing the echoes at Killarney in him a sixpence. The woman, with her 1848. When I was there I heard a bugle black hair over her shoulders and her beneath the "Eagle's Nest", and eight eyes streaming with tears, passionately distinct echoesfi.64 However Allingham Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881), historian, closed her hands over the boy's hand in stated that the poet heard nine echoes, the philosopher, essayist and critic did not which was the sixpence. When the "King" 'last like a chant of angels in the sky'.Gs visit Kilkee, Co. Clare in 1849 but wrote and I climbed into the car, I, in my stupid Only one of Tennyson's letters survives about it shortly before his Irish visit in the Saxon way, thinking it was the beggarly from his 1848 Irish visit, a letter undated summer of that year. In a letter dated Chelsea, June 24, 1849, to his Irish friend, Charles Gavan Duffy, he wrote: "People are giving me letters, &c. Aubrey de Vere has undertaken for 'six good Irish landlords', vehemently protesting that 'six' (suggested by me) is not the maximum number. He wishes to send me across direct to Kilkee (Clare County), where his friends now are. A day or two of peace at some nice bathing-place, to swim about, and then sit silent looking out at the divine salt flood, is very inviting to my fancy; but Kilkee all at once will not be the place, I find . . ."7Tith Duffy he visited Limerick, where he stayed at Cruise's Hotel and where he described Cruise himself - 'a lean, eager-looking little man of forty, most reverent of Duffy, as is common here, riding with us from Limerick station to his hotel'. Like Thackeray before him, (Limerick Museum) Carlyle visited the famous glove-shop: "July 24 - Glove shop; Limerick gloves, A bargeman - he was Irish out of Clare; Charles, D'Arcy, Edward and Pierce were scarcely any made now; buy a pair of cloth For every prize he wrote and failed in also alumni of Cambridge. Painter, gloves ..." He also mentions the Quaker all, journalist and lover, poor Saville Morton Unthank "('kind of chemist' I think) Irish And many a song he wrote which no met an untimely end - being murdered at accent, altogether English in thought, man knew. Paris in October 1852 by a jealous speech and wags. Rational exact man". The cleverest man in all our set was he". husband. From Limerick Carlyle travelled to Galway In the autumn of 1878 Tennyson, the via Dromoland, Ennis and Gort. At Galway The above is one of the spirited Poet Laureate since 1850, paid his third towards the end of July 'the young Cambridge portraits which Tennyson and last visit to Ireland. In that summer he Quaker' (W.E. Forster, later Chief introduced to all the early published toured the country with his two sons Secretary of Ireland) joined Duffy and editions of The Princess up to 1850 and Hallam and Li~nel,~~visiting Dublin, Carlyle. In Limerick Carlyle had his which his grandson (Sir Charles Wicklow, Westport, Galway, Limerick, photograph taken and inscribed a copy to Tennyson) could not certainly identify.76 Mount Trenchard, Kilkee and Killarne~.~~ Duffy dated "Limerick this 24th of July, These lines would suggest that Tennyson From Dublin and Wicklow the Tennysons 1849. T. Carlyle". He described what he was acquainted with at least one Clarernan travelled by rail to Westport (Lord saw of "the features of a recently before he ever visited Ireland. It has been Sligo's)80 and from there to Limerick "by a conquered country - conquered by famine suggested that the lines on the "wild slow trainn81via Galway. They were in - and stated "Clare was almost a November fool" might refer to Tom Steele, Limerick on Friday evening, September wilderness from Kilrush to Cor0fin".~5 but the lines probably refer to "the mild 14th, stayed at Cruise's and on and brilliant Iri~hman"~7Sevile Morton, Saturday 15th visited the sights of the city who was a contemporary of A.T. at including "a good view of the Shannon and Cambridge 1830-1831. Saville Morton did house where Ireton died"." The Irish "The next that spoke, a wild November not come from Co. Clare, however, but Times of Monday 16th September re- fool: from Drumrora, Co. Cavan, and was a ported: "On Saturday he was engaged Twice had he been convened and once friend of Thackeray, Tennyson and (and, no doubt, gratified) inspecting the had fought Edward Fitzgerald. His four brothers, portion of the walls still standing, St. Mary's Cathedral, the Treaty Stone &cn. It added (incorrectly) that A.T. "has since left Limerick en route for Lisdoonvarna". The Limerick Chronicle (of 14th Septem- ber) reported: "Mr. Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, accompanied by his two sons arrived at Cruise's Hotel on Thursday and left en route for Killarney". The Munster News (of the 12th September) anticipated by a week Tennyson's arrival in Killarney when it stated that A.T. was "sojourning at Killarney". The Tennyson party did not arrive at Killarney until Wednesday, September 18th.84 From Limerick the three Tennysons travelled to Lord Monteagle'sa5 Mount Trenchard house, which the Poet Laureate had visited before (1848). Hallam Tennyson wrote:86 'We played at lawn-tennis and walked by the Shannon in a storm. Papa read Mand which gave great pleasure, and Eleanor Butcher87 (the babe) was found on a rock by herself in the Shannon. She is a wild, simple young child. All the 3 Miss Butchers are each 'eine natar' as Goethe says,88and as I write of them to Lady Curragh Chase c.1905. From a by Guy, Limerick. MonteagleS9and what Papa thinks of (Limerick Museum) them". swinging a racquet in the fine weather of a few days before. "These Limerick girls', remarked a local wit, 'are growing more fickle than ever. Yesterday they had lawn-tennis on. To-day they have Alfred Tennyson' .. . ."98 It was at the Duggerna (Graves called it 'Duggena') springboard at Carriguvana, or as it was even then and now more generally called, 'New-Found-Out' that Graves almost knocked heads witb another swimmer: *I "'Beg your pardon, sir!' 'Not at all sir!' - then 'What! You here, Alfred? Why, how long have you been in these \ > parts?' 'About ten days, J.G.! I replied, recognizing my friend Butcher. 'Very odd we've not met before? 'Not at all. I've been purposely avoiding you? 'That doesn't sound very friendly'. 'Perhaps not, but my intention was particularly so'. 'Explain!' 'Well, the fact is, I heard you were Limerick calfskin gloves in walnut, early C19th. showing Tennyson the sights; and know- (Limerick Museum) ing how shy he is of strangers, I thought the most friendly thing I could do was to Having signed the Visitor's Book at "Scarcely a breath of air was stirring, steer clear of your party'. Mount Trenchard (and Alfred Tennyson and the August [sic, recte September] sky 'My dear fellow, I'll make that all right' was the first to sign the new Visitors Book was intensely blue. Yet the great Atlantic "And he did within a few hours; for that there)go and after Tennyson had borrowed billows, gathering out of the sea distance afternoon I got a note from him saying, a pocket handkerchief and Hallam had at ever increasing intervals still boomed 'Tennyson hopes you will spend the borrowed a shirt from their generous host, and smoked against the cliffs - the last evenine with us. Don't bother about who also helped them to pack their traps, sullen thunders of oceans retreating dressing. Come just as you are, if not the party set off for Kilkee, with the insurgency. exactly as you were when last we met'."99 Lady Monteagle's brother, John George "But the proverbial ill wind that had Graves' wife, Jane (eldest daughter of B~tcher)~~and her three sisters. They kept all but the most venturesome spirits James Cooper Cooper, of Cooper Hill, Co. steamed up the Shannon. "At Kilkee", close prisoners in the 'lodges' of Kilkee Limerick - she died in 1886 and A.P.G. re- Hallam wrote,92 "we walked up beyond a had blown the storm-loving Tennyson married later), was an invalid and too headland, and heard the Atlantic's savage over from Foynes, where he and his son unwell to accompany her husband to voice shattering on dark slab rocks that Hallam were the guests of Lord and Lady Moore's Hotel "where the Bard received made the white foam seem whiter. At Monteagle.. .. me beaming, evidently amused at what he night we sat on a ledge on the sea-wind "The intelligence of Tennyson's arrival had heard from Butcher of our marine and smoked our pipes". at Moore Hotel had spread rapidly, and on meeting. He offered me a 'churchwarden' On the following morning (Tuesday the splendid forenoon in question it was pipe, made me sit beside him, and plunged September 17th) Tennyson and his two very noticeable what a number of the into pleasant talk."l00 A.T. was then aged sons and party walked over Look-out Hill Laureate's slim green volumes were in 70 years. to "the Hungry Bishop's Isleng3where the evidence on the terraces and up the cliff "His accent and speech both surprised party saw the "ruins of a cottage inhabited side in the hands which had been me. I was quite prepared for the fastidious by some Bishop or other".94 In the after- noon they drove to Beltard to view the cliffs and the cavern, while J.G. Butcher was left to enjoy the Kilkee horse races on the sands with a Miss Ponsonby.95 Describing Beltard, Hallam wrote "The view was fine, a sheer 400 foot high black precipice and broken castles running out to sea. There was a splendid wind..."96 We are fortunate in having another account of Tennyson's Kilkee visit of 1878. Staying at Kilkee while the Tennysons were there was another poet and writer, Alfred Perceval Graves and his invalid wife, listed as "Mr. and Mrs. Graves" in a list of visitors to Kilkee in September 1878.g7Graves account is worth quoting in part: "It was the summer of 1878. A gale from the south west, after breaking suddenly over the iron-bound coast of Clare, and raging against it furiously for .+ l ',*. Lawrence postcard of Moore's Hotel, posted in 1905. '? forty-eight hours, had just died away. (Limerick Museum) The late Mrs. Mercy Ida Tyner of Kilkee (who died in September 1968) told me (in the autumn of 1963) that her late father, Dr. John Walton (d.1925),l16 and his friend, the Rev. Robert J. Gabbett (d.1891),l17a former Vicar of Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, had both met Tennyson at Kilkee during his last visit there and this seems likely as both Dr. Walton and the Rev. R.J. Gabbett were at Kilkee at the..; time of A.T.'s visit in 1878. On Dr. Walton's and the Rev. R.J. Gabbett's monument at Kilfearagh cemetery, Kilkee, the following lines from Tennyson's appear:

1hope to see my pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar"

and on the beautiful monument erected in Valentine postcard of the Pollock Holes, Kilkee, posted in 1952. St. James' , Kilkee, by (Limerick Museum) Dr. Walton to the Rev. R.J. Gabbett, the lines: articulation and premeditated hesitation in would discover how far Tennyson's J the choice of words to which so many version of the Maeldune story varied from "Ohfor the touch ofa vanished hand distinguished English University men are the original 'course sailed by the ancient And the sound ofa voice that is still" prone. There was a rich burr in his accent, navigator,'ln7and how far his poem varied Lincolnshire, I suppose, and a pungent from the original Irish legend. from Tennyson's Break, Break, Break, directness in his utterance which was as Other subjects discussed by the two appear. refreshing as they were unlooked for".lol Alfreds at Moore's Hotel on that evening Tennyson and Graves first talked of the long ago included Ossian - Tennyson sea "and he spoke notably. He said that a quoted from Macpherson - the pre- great storm, such as we had witnessed, ternatural, witches, spiritualism and a About 1952 or 1953, I heard from several was a wonderful and terrible sight of subject dear to Graves, an Inspector of old residents of Kilkee that Tennyson's impatient passion, and he quoted St. National Schools, - national education. The Break, Break, Break was either composed Jude's words, 'Raging waves of the sea, Laureate, according to Graves, "seemed at or inspired by Kilkee! This story is foaming out their shame'.ln2But he had eager for practical instances of its [i.e. without foundation and the lines were first once seen roll in out of the Atlantic, National Education] enlightening effects published in May 1842, before Tennyson suddenly, over a still sky, a succession of upon the people, derived from my ever set foot in Ireland. In fact, Hallam stupendous billows, earthquake waves personal knowledge as an inspector of Tennyson stated that it was composed "in perhaps, which completely engulphed schools. A generation previously he had a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the the shore, and whose awful serenity said that 'one of the two great social morning between blossoming hedges,"'18 impressed his imagination far more deeply problems impending was the housing and in a very different setting from that to than any tempest he had ever experi- education of the poor man before making which it refers. Cecilia Tennyson, the enced."l03 Tennyson also spoke of his him our master; the other was the Higher poet's sister, recited Break, Break, Break Kerry visit of 1848. Education of Women', to which his on the 16th March, 1839,119so presumably Graves continues: "He went on to say Pm'nces~~~~served as a pioneern.lOg Hallam it was written sometime before early 1837, that he much desired to write an Irish Tennyson wrote: "O'Brien,lln son of Smith when the Tennysons left Somersby and / Poem, and was on the lookout for a O'Brien, who talked of a Local Govern- or after September 1833, since it was suitable subject. Could I make a suggest- ment for Ireland, and Perceval Graves the inspired by the death of , ion." Graves suggested Dr. Joyce's Old Ireland [sic!]poet came in and smoked in possibly in the spring of 1834. Celtic Romances,ln4 which were then the evening"."' unpublished, but which he had seen in On the following morning (Wednes- ABBREVIATIONS manuscript form. He promised to send a day, September 18th) all the Tennysons l. Allingham, A Diary: Allingham, H. copy of the work to Tennyson on its rose early before 7 o'clock and walked "to and Radford, D. (eds): William publication - which he did - and adds that a wendy ledge of rock and saw the white Allingham A Diary, Macmillan & Co. Tennyson's Voyage of Maeldune was the wave - ghosts at intervals leaping up here Ltd., London, 1907. outcome. The Poet Laureate, in his notes and there over breakers".112The Tennyson 2. D.N.B.: Dictionary of National quoted by his son, wrote 'I read the legend party drove in a long car to Kilrush and Biography. in Joyce's Celtic Legends [recte Old Celtic parted with the Butchers at Tarbert, 3. Graves, Reminiscence: Graves, Alfred Romances], 'but most of the details are where they were met by Lord Monteagle's Perceval, Tennvson in Ireland: a mine'. His biographer added: 'By this phaeton, which took the party to Tralee Reminiscence in The Cornhill Story he intended to represent in his own and from there to Listowel, where they Magazine, (New Series) Vol. 3 way the Celtic genius, and he lunched "on Salmon and Whiskey - a truly (November 1897). wrote the poem with a genuine love of Irish lunchn113 and from thence to 4. Graves, Irish Literary: Graves, Alfred the Peculiar exuberance of the Irish Killarney, where A.T. stayed again, for the Perceval: Irish Literary And Musical imagination."^" third time, at the Victoria Hotel. The Studies, Elkin Mathews, London, As Francis MacManus wrote, Tenny- Munster News anticipated Tennyson's 1913. :on's enthusiasm for a Celtic subject was arrival in Killarney by a week and 5. Graves, Return: Graves, Alfred an enthusiasm that did not seem childish, reported: "Mr. Tennyson, the Poet Perceval: To Return To All That: An Or at least presumptuous, to either of the Laureate, and Dr. Kennelly,l14the would- Autobioarabhv.A- The Talbot Press, two men. Had they been in France, would be-poet, are at Killarney: the Jonathan Cape, London, they have talked so inconsiderately about in inspiration from the witing a French poem?"'Ob Mac Manus's Mountains, the other to i annon, Letters: Lang, article is of great interest to those who Devil's Punchb~wl".~~ Shannon, Edgar F. Jr. (eds): The Letters of Alfred Lord 21. Ibid. Veronica: Limerick Lace: A Social Tennyson, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 22. O'Flynn, Criostoir: Summer In History And A Maker's Manual, Colin Volume I (1821-1850) 1982, and Kilkee, The Treaty Press, Limerick, Smythe, Gerrard's Cross, 1995, 45. Volume 3 (1871-92) Oxford, O.U.P. 1984, 34. There is a photograph of Old Church 1990. 23. Liddy, James in a Radio Eireann I. (Rowe Collection) in the same work. 7. L. C. : Limerick Chronicle. broadcast in November, 1974 I am most grateful to Mrs. Rowe for 8. M.N.: Munster News. (repeated 22nd August, 1986). this description of Old Church. 9. Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir: Tenny- 24. For an account of The Garryowen F. Lady de Vere: She was Aubrey son, Hallam: Alfied Lord Tennyson, A Murphy, Rev. Ignatius: Pre-Famine Thomas de Vere's sister-in-law, the Memoir By His Son, Macmillan and Passenger Service On The Lower former Mary Lucy Standish, dau. of Co., London, 1897 (2 volumes). Shannon in the North Munster Rowland Standish, of Scaleby Castle, 10. Tennyson, Hallam: Materials: Tenny- Antiquarian Journal, Vol. XVI, (1973- Cumberland and of Farley HikI$ son, Hallam: Materials for a Life of 4), 74 and McNeill, D.B.: Irish Berks, (whose wife was a dau. of the Alfred Tennyson. Collected for My Passenger Steamship Services, David Earl of Limerick) who married 9th Children, (4 volumes, privately and Charles, Newton Abbott (Vol. 2. January, 1838, Vere Edmund de printed) 1895. The Senior Librarian South of Ireland) 149-150. Vere, who succeeded as the third at the Tennyson Research Centre, 25. Thackeray, William Makepeace: The baronet of Curragh Chase in 1846. A Lincolnshire Central Reference Irish Sketch-Book by Mr. M.A. descendant of a Protestant Bishop of Library states (letter to author dated Titmarsh ... In Two Volumes, Limerick, she later converted to 21st January 1987) " ... As far as I can London, Chapman and Hall, (1843) Catholicism, as did her husband, and tell the information in these two (i.e. Vol. I. 253 et. seq. died in 1892. quoted in 9 above) and the manus- 26. The piper was Paddy O'Neill of Caroline Standish. The sister of Lady cript from which both derived) is Lisdeen, Kilkee, a minor Irish poet de Vere. She m. 13 November 1849, almost wholly reproduced in the and player of the Scotch-pipes. Cf. Paulet St. John Mildmay. Memoir. L.C. 11 Sept. 1841 ('Paddy O'Neill's Sir Vere Edmund de Vere, 3rd Bart., Song'). was a gifted musician. Writing as REFERENCES 27. The bugler was 'bugler John' cf. L. C. early as October, 1828, Alfred Tenny- Allingham, A Diary, 293. 11 Sept. 1841: "Or bugler John, sped son's cousin wrote of de Vere: "He Ibid. 297. th' Erin on, that slap up spankin' plays beautifully on the piano." Cf. Ibid. 293. boat, sir. Martin: Tennyson, The Unquiet Ibid. "He spoke of Ireland with Till on Cams-- -uier the folks did hear his Heart. abhorrence and the wickedness of ill regular QUAY-note, sir". Lady G. Almost certainly Lady using poor animals" Queen Victoria Thackeray, Ibid. Guillamore (1805-1871). Born on Tennyson (Osborne, Tuesday, Ibid. Gertrude Jane, eld. dau. of the Hon. August 7th, 1883) quoted in Dyson, A pair of these Limerick gloves, one Berkely Paget (youngest bro. of the Hope and Tennyson, Charles: Dear of the pair contained in a walnut- Marquis of Anglesey). She m. 16th And Honoured Lady, Macmillan, shell, is in the collection of Limerick October, 1828 the Hon. Standish London, 1969,102. Museum. Darby O'Grady (1792-1848), who Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir, I, 287. Thackeray, William Makepeace in a succeeded as Viscount Guillamore in Cf. Abbreviations 3 above. letter (dated 31st. August - 1st. 1840. The O'Gradys came from Cahir Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir, I, 207. September) to his mother, Mrs. Guillamore, Co. Limerick. Lang and Shannon: Letters I, 208. Carmichael-Smyth, quoted in Ray, Almost certainly the Hon. Sophia Tennyson, Hallam: Material I, 281-2 Gordon N: The Letters And Private O'Grady, eldest of the four daughters quoted in Lang and Shannon: Letters Papers Of William Makepeace of Viscount and Viscountess (Lady) 1, 210 and also in Tennyson, Hallam: Thackeray, O.U.P., London, 1945. Guillamore. Memoir 1, 212-213. Vol. 2 (1841-1850) 76. Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I. 289. Lang and Shannon: Letters I, 210. Ibid. 75. Lord Monteagle. Born Thomas Ibid. 1, 210; Tennyson, Hallam: Tennyson, Alfred: Poems, In 2 Spring-Rice (1790-1866), first Baron Memoir I, 217. volumes, by Alfred Tennyson, Monteagle of Brandon (created Quoted by Graves, Reminiscence 594; London, Edward Moxon, 1842. 1839). M.P. for Limerick 1820-1832, M. N. 6 November 1897; Graves, Irish Cf. reference 17 above. and for the borough of Cambridge Literary I; Graves, Return, 185. Henderson, Philip: Tennyson. Poet 1832-1839. A Whig, he served as Lang and Shannon: Letters I, 210; And Prophet, Routledge & Kegan Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir, 1, 212- Paul, London and Henley, 1978,68. Lord Melbourne from April 1835 to 213. Ibid. September 1839. Lived at Mount Lang and Shannon: Letters I, 210-211. Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I, 287. Trenchard (near Foynes), Co. L.C., 6 May 1843. Ibid. Limerick until his death in 1866, Lang and Shannon: Letters I, 209. Ibid. when he was succeeded by his Ibid. 210; Cf. also Canon A. Aingers' Lang and Shannon: Letters I. 282 (in grandson. A statue to his memory article in the D.N.B. Vol. 19 (1909) a letter to Lord Monteagle endorsed graces Pery Square, Limerick, and in p549, where he states that Tennyson by Alfred Tennyson '15 January Limerick Chamber of Commerce and his family lost 'a considerable 1848'). there is a painting of Thomas Spring part of their small capital' in a 'wood- Ward, Wilfred: Aubrey de Vere: A Rice being chaired after an election carving by machinery' scheme which Memoir, London, 1904, 146. Quoted victory. Cf. Potter, Matthew: A did not succeed. Cf. also Sir Charles also in Lang and Shannon: Letters I, Catholic Unionist: The Life and Times Tennyson's article on the poet in 283. of William Monsel First Baron Emly Collier's Encyclopaedia, Vol. 22, 170. Martin, Robert Bernard: Tennyson. of Tervoe, Limerick 1994. O'Connor, Lawrence: Lost Ireland, The Unquiet Heart. Oxford, Claren- Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I. 291. 1984 (under photo. No. 203). don Press, Faber and Faber, 1980, Maurice FitzGerald (1772-1849), Lehane, Brendan: The Companion 318. 18th hereditary Knight of Kerry. Guide to Ireland, Collins, London, & Tennyson headed his letter to Lord M.P. from 1794 to Act of Union Prentice Hall. Inc., Eaglewood Cliffs, Monteagle "42 Ebury Street (which he supported) for Kerry. In N.J., 1985, 335. [London] [15th January, 18481". 1801 he was returned again for Co. Kilkee Development Association: All Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I, 288. Kerry and later supported Catholic About Kilkee (nd, but 1982), 43. O Clkirigh, Nellie and Rowe, Emancipation. Vice-Treasurer of Ireland (1830), he was defeated in 1892," where Ireland is mentioned spelling of local place-names as in the elections of 1831 and 1835. 1878, but not Kilkee. Hallam Tennyson's letter to his Described as an "excellent friend George John Browne (1820-1896), mother. and landlord" he died at Glanleam, 3rd Marquis of Sligo, Earl of 94. Lang and Shannon, Letters, 111. 163. Valentia, 7th March, 1849. Cf. D.N.B. Altemount etc. He was one of the 28 95. Miss Ponsonby. Almost certainly one Vol. VII. 141-2. peers who in 1883 owned over of the two daughters of Chambre Ricks, Christopher: The Poems of 100,000 acres in U.K., being 23rd in Brabazon Ponsonby of Kilcooley Tennyson (Longman's Annotated point of acreage and 27th in point of Abbey, Co. Tipperary, and his wife, English Poets series), 1969. annual rental, "valued at (only) the Hon. Mary Sophin Plunkett Appendix B, 1796. £19,000 a year". He m. (as his third (eldest d. of 16th Baron Dunsany) - Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I. 291. wife) June 1878, Isabella De Peyron- either Dorothy Constance (b.1874) -8 Quoted by Graves, Reminiscence, net, youngest dau. of Viscounte de or Alice Isabel (b.1876). The+' 598. Peyronnet and died 5 p.m. 30 Ponsonbys were frequent visitors to Ibid. December 1896. He lived at Mount Kilkee and stayed at Moore's Hotel Ibid. 599. Browne, near Guildford and at while the Tennysons were visiting MacManus, Francis: Tennvson's Westport, where he owned 114,881 there. Cf. Neely, W.G.: Kilcooley: Irish Tale in The Irish Monthly, Vol. acres. Land And People In Tipperary, LXXI. uuiy 1943) 275. Lang and Shannon, Letters, 111, 162 - Belfast University Press, 1983. Graves: Reminiscence 599-600; letter dated 'Royal Victoria Hotel, 96. Lang and Shannon, Letters, 111, 163. Graves: Irish Literary, 8, Graves: Lakes of Killarney, September 24, 97. L.C., 14 Sept. 1878. Return, 190. 1878' from Lionel Tennyson to his 98. Graves, Reminiscence, 595; M.N. 6 Graves: Return, 189-190. mother Emily Sellwood. November 1897. Did this quip by the Added by A.T. 1850 to The Princess. L. C. 14 September 1878. Kilkee wit on 'lawn-tennis' inspire Published in third edition of "The Land and Shannon, Letters, 111, 162. James Joyce " ... of all the glad new Princess" (in Poems, 2 Vols, Sixth Ibid. 163. year, mother, the rum tum tiddledy edition, 1853). Cf. Ricks, Christopher: Lord Monteagle, Thomas Spring- turn Lawn Tennyson, gentleman The Poems of Tennyson, (Longman's Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle (1849- poet" ( (1920); Bodley Head Annotated English Poets series), 1926). Succeeded his grandfather edition (1937) p. 47. 11. 20-21). Later 1969,783. 1866. Joyce told the Irish artist, Arthur Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir I. 291-2; Lang and Shannon, Letters, 111. 162. Power, in Paris - "- Lawn Tennyson", quoted also in Ricks, Christopher: When Alfred Milner visited Mount he said, repeating the quip in Ulysses, The Poems of Tennyson, 783. Trenchard in the autumn of 1886 - 'the rectory prude, a poet deficient Allingham, A Diary, 301. only 8 years after Tennyson's visit - in intellect." Cf. Power, Arthur: Lang and Shannon: Letters I. 283. the home of his friend Lord Mont- Conversations with James Joyce, Martin, op. cit, 319 eagle, he found the tennis lawn was Millington, 1974. 102. Cf. Graves, Hayter, Alethea: FitzGerald to his overgrown and an air of dilapidation Irish Literary, 3. Graves, Return, 185. Friends: Selected Letters of Edward 'joined to fortitude' about the place. 99. Graves, Reminiscence, 596. Graves FitzGerald,Scolar Press, London, Eleanor Butcher (d. unm. 1894) gives a slightly different version of 1979, 93. youngest sister of Lady Monteagle, this note in his To Return To All That Tennyson Hallam: Memoir I. 280. both daughters of the Bishop of (1930) 186. Graves, Reminiscence, 594; M.N. 6 Meath and sisters to John George 100. Ibid., where the pipe is described November 1897; Graves, Irish ("J.G.") Butcher, later Lord simply as 'a long pipe', M.N. 6 Literary, 2. Graves, Return, 185. A Danesfort. November 1897; Graves, Return, 186 note by Aubrey de Vere on the Eckermann's Conversations with etc. original letter (in the Bewicke Rare Goethe, 3 December 1824. 101. Ibid. Book And Manuscript Library, at Lady Monteagle. Born Elizabeth 102. "mild waves of the sea, casting Yale University): 'Later than his visit Butcher, eldest dau. of the Very Rev. up the foam of their own shame" to Curragh Chase in 1848 - A de V.' Samuel Butcher, D.D. Bishop of from the letter of Jude, 13 (new Original letter at Yale University, Meath, she m. (1875) Lord Mont- testament). U.S.A. cf. (69) above. Lang and eagle and d. 27 April 1908. 103. Graves, Reminiscence, 597; M.N., 6 Shannon: Letters I. 305. A.T. signed it "A Tennyson Septr. November 1897; Graves, Irish Graves, Reminiscence, 595. 16th - 78". I am most grateful to Lord Literary, 4; Graves, Return. L. C., 3 June 1848. Monteagle of Brandon for this 104. Joyce, Patrick Weston: Old Celtic Thomas Carlyle in a letter dated information. Romances, Kegan Paul, London, "Chelsea, June 24, 1849" to Charles John George Butcher (1853-1935). 1879. Gavan Duffy quoted in Duffy, Sir Killarney-born son of a future Bishop 105. Quoted by Graves, Reminiscence, Charles Gavan: Conversations with of Meath. Educated Trinity Coll. 600. Carlyle, Sampson Low, Marston, & Cambridge 1870.1874; Scholar and 106. MacManus, Francis: Tennvson's Co., London, 1892.42. Barrister, Lincoln's Inns 1878. Irish Tale in The Irish Monthly, Vol. Ibid. 120. Conservative M.P. York City 1892- LXXI Uuly, 1943), 275. Tennyson, Sir Charles: Alfred 1906 and 1910-1923. Q.C. 1897. 107. Ibid. 275. Tennyson, Macmillan, New York, Baronet 1918 and cr. Baron Danes- 108. "Tennyson brought out in 1847 the 1949,220. fort. President of the British Empire first poem of his maturity, The Ibid. 185,202. Union. He was an arch-Conservative. Princess, a fantasy on the theme of Lionel Tennyson, youngest son of The Times obituary notice (1st July, women's rights" - Tennyson, Sir the poet Laureate and Emily 1935) described him as "one of the Charles, in Collier's Encyclopaedia Sellwood (cf. Thovaite, Ann: Emily few really uncompromising 'diehard' (Vol. 22). (1952) 170. Tennyson: The Poet's Wife, Faber, Tories of his generation". 109. Graves, Reminiscence, 602; Graves, London, 1997) b. 1854, he m. 1878 Lang and Shannon, Letters, 111. 162. Return, 195. Eleanor Mary Bertha Locker [of E. Generally called 'Bishop's Island' to 110. O'Brien. This was the fourth son of of Elgin's family] and d. 20 April, the west of Kilkee, off the Dunlickey William Smith O'Brien and Lucy 1886. Rd. The Tennysons appear to have Gabbett - Robert Donough. Born Tennyson, Hallam: Memoir 2, 529 used Murray's Handbook For 1844, he was, unlike his elder where Hallam lists "Summer tours Travellers In Ireland, 1878 edition - it brothers, patriotically inclined and that my father made with me, 1874 to contains the same mistakes in the subsequently became a member of the Council of the Home Rule great longing for the sea. [A.T. was see therefore what concessions can be League, to which his sister, probably staying at Kilkee, Co. Clare, at made, or what divertions can be effected. I Charlotte, was passionately attached. this time] and partly I suspect because he conclude therefore that matters have He died 1917. wants to be quite quiet, live in a home by reached a crisis state it only remains to be 111. Lang and Shannon: Letters, 111, 163. himself and indulge in lonely musings - seen whether the Young Irelanders are 112. Ibid. which will probably take the shape stout enough for a Rebellion and whether 113. Ibid. hereafter of poetic Denunciations of the England in stout enough to put it down. 114. Dr. Edward Hyde Kenealy, M.P. for revolutionary spirit now abroad -'l These times must be interesting for Stoke-on-Trent, on "Independent The second item is a notice which was you who remember 98. 1 thought I skould Principles" 1875-80. Educ. T.C.D.: headed 'Supplementary List of September have had the great pleasure of enjoying B.A. (1840), LL.B. (1846) and Visitors To Kilkee' which appeared in the within the next few days some of yo~r proceeded to LL.D. Called to both Limerick Chronicle of September 21, 1878: recollections connected with that period-rjnd the Irish and English bar (1840 and "Mr. Tennyson, the Poet Laureate and two the time of the Union, for I had fully 1847). Played a minor role in the sons'. intended to have accompanied my friend famous Tichborne case (1866). Died The third item is a spurious account of Aured Tennyson who has heard of the fame 1880. Cf. Stanton, Michael TVko's a near accident which erroneously links of Valentia and is going to-morrow to pass Who of British Members of Parlia- A.T. with the English statesman, William some days at the little bzn on the Island - I ment, Vol. I (1832-1885) .. .. Atlantic E. Forster, at Kilkee. This appeared under dont like to move from home just at present Highlands N.J. Union Bros. Ltd ... for the heading 'The Irish Brighton' in the until I hear something as to the other a short biography of Dr. Kenealy, Clare Journal of the 23rd August 1888. course things are likely to take, but it is who was a minor poet. The author stated, inter alia: 'It was whilst not impossible that I may be able to follow 115. This statement is not as libelous as watching the waves charging up the him by the end of the week. In the mean it first appears, as "The Devil's limestone slope of the Diamond Rocks a time if1should not be able to introduce him Punchbowl" is a hill, 2,379 feet high, few autumns ago, that the most disting- to you personally pray allow me to do so near Killarney. uished of English poets, and an eminent thus by letter - He is a man whom you 116. John Walton, M.B. Adopted son of statesman "whose name has been doubtless know by name though I doubt your Rev. Robert J. Gabbett. Dr. Walton unwarrantly connected with ammunition", having read his poetry for I remember that was educated at T.C.D. and was a had a narrow escape from being swept you are so very orthodox in your poetic fine Greek and Latin scholar. He d. away by the sudden incursion of a billow faith and such a determined believer in at Kilkee 1925. more than usually large'. While A.T. and Pope, that I suspect you regard somewhat 117. Rev. Robert J. Gabbett (1816-1891). Forster were at Kilkee in the autumn of slightly, the more modern schools. He is Brother of Mrs. William Smith 1878, they were not there at the same however not only an eminent Poet, but an O'Brien and former Vicar of Shana- time. excellent fellow (though somewhat shy) and golden. Scholar and Artist, he d. at a very intimate friend of ours. He has been Kilkee, 1891. 1 Knight of Kerry Papers, Public Record staying here for the last two months - He is 118. Tennyson, Hallam: Memorial, I, 190. Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast. now staying away from us partly from a 119. Blackwoods Magazine (1894) 602. Vol. 17. I am grateful to Mr. Adrian great longing for the sea and partly I suspect FitzGerald (per Knight of Kerry) and because he wants to be quite quiet live in a Dr. A.P.W. Malcomson and the P.R.O. house by himself and indulge in lonely ADDENDUM N.I. for permission to publish extracts musings - which will probably take the shape Since writing the above, three Tenny- from Aubrey de Vere's letter. hereafter of poetic Denunciations of the sonian items have surfaced which shed [Copyright Material] revolutionary spim't now abroad - further light on the poet's Irish visits of Will you present my remembrances to 1848 and 1878. The first, and most Aubrey de Vere to Knight of Kerry Mrs. FitzGerald, who however will hardly important, is a letter dated 'March 27. 48' Introducing Tennyson remember my name as I have only once from Aubrey de Vere, Curragh Chase, Co. had the pleasure of meeting her - that was Limerick, to his friend and kinsman, the Currah Chase, March 27.48. some nine years ago when Stephen Spring then Knight of Kerry. It is an introductory Rice and I looked in on ... [Vere??] at letter acquainting the Knight with the My dear Knight Ballyinruddery on our way to Killarney - immanent arrival of Tennyson at Valentia, Pray accept my best thanks for your May you believe me where the Knights of Kerry resided. I letter. It was very kind of you to find time faithfully yours quote in part: " . . .. I thought I should have to write it in these troubled days when all Aubrey de Vere had the great pleasure of enjoying within Europe is Dashing forward at rail-road My mother sends you her kindest the next few days some of your speed, and in which direction no one can regards. recollections connected with that period exactly know. For Germany and for Italy I and the time of the Union, for I had fully have good hopes mixed with considerable intended to have accompanied my friend fears - As for France I do not see what NOTES Alfred Tennyson who has heard of the chances there is of that unhappy country William Smith O'Brien's brother fame of Valentia and is going tomorrow escaping a state of anarchy - equal to the Robert [of Old Church] was married to [i.e. 28th March, 18481 to pass some days worst it has yet known. Its certainly not Elinor Jane Alicia Lucy de Vere at the little Inn on the Island - I don't like very pleasant to have ones neighbour's (14.2.1835), sister of Aubrey (Thomas) de to move from home just at present . . . it is house on fire and our excitable people Vere, thus W.S. O'Brien and Aubrey de not impossible that I may be able to follow seem inclined enough to catch the blaze - Vere were brother-in-laws. de Vere did not him by the end of the week. In the The Roman Catholic clergy will do what approve of O'Brien's revolutionary meantime if I should not be able to they can. principles, being a liberal constitutionist introduce him to you personally pray allow I think to prevent an outbreak but if the leaning towards the Tory party. De Vere's me to do so thus by letter - He is a man excitement shall become very great it may brother, Stephen Edward de Vere (later whom you doubtless know by name perhaps hurry them along with it. If there 4th and last Baronet), was M.P. for though I doubt your having read his existed in Ireland anything like a combin- Limerick (1854-g), a liberal, but was poetry ... He is however not only an ation among the upper classes for the opposed to home rule like most of his eminent Poet, but an excellent fellow attainment of really practical and remedial class. de Vere's mother, Mary Spring-Rice (though somewhat shy) and a very measures I think that one might expect (d. 11th February 1856), was a sister of intimate friend of ours. He has been some useful concessions just now - but Thomas Spring Rice (1st Baron Monteagle staying here for the last two months - He unfortunately nothing is demanded but of Brandon of Mount Trenchard and is now staying away from us partly from a Repeal and Tenant Right - one does not Ballycrispin, Co. Kerry).