George Clayton
Tennyson. Although there seems little reason for not believing that the
scenery which surrounded him in his youth impressed itself on his mind,
yet it is now stated with authority that the localities associated with
his subject poems, "which had been ingeniously identified with real
brooks and granges, were wholly imaginary." Those who visit Somersby,
therefore, would be wise in avoiding what is pointed out as "Tennyson's
Brook," merely gaining instead a general idea of the appearance of the
country which impressed itself on the poet's mind.
When he was six years old Tennyson was sent to the grammar school at
Louth, a town his mother was connected with, her father having been
vicar there. After five years at school at Louth, Tennyson returned to
Somersby Rectory to be trained by his father. The rectory possessed a
good library, and here the poet obtained his extensive knowledge of the
English classics. When only twelve years old he wrote an epic of 6000
lines, and two years later a drama in blank verse. Tennyson's early
knowledge of the sea was obtained at Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire
coast, where the family spent their summer holidays. His father would
not allow him to leave Somersby until he could recite from memory the
whole of the odes of Horace.
In the early part of 1831 he returned to Somersby from Cambridge, and
within a few days his father died. The new incumbent, however, allowed
the family to continue at the rectory for some years.
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