[Farringford—Wednesday, 26 May 1869]

We breakfasted at ½ past 9 the next morning, Tennyson coming in to the table and Mrs Tennyson rising to kiss him before he sat down. He has an attic chamber near his study and Allingham told me that in the night he walked into his room which was adjoining, in his shirt and walked and talked an hour of poetry and many things in the moonlight. He talked much all day walking and at table, of growing things, of poetry, of speech and of America.

In the morning we walked first to Mrs Cameron’s cottage and not finding her at home kept on to the Cliffs by the sea. There we plucked “Thrift” calling to mind his line, where it trembles on the perilous cliff.

We walked till lunch and after lunch, to which some ladies were invited. Tennyson went to his study and read at my request “Boadicea” and at J’s, portions of Maud. Afterward we walked and ran in the delicious light and air 6 miles, to the Needles and back, climbing to the beacon on the way.

Coming home we walked in his garden where the roses and lilies grow he has made immortal. He carried us too into the Bailiff’s little garden and gave us each roses which he asked us to wear in our hair at dinner.

In the evening came Mrs Cameron. It was moonlight & Tennyson would slip up to his room now and then, but he was cordial and sweet and grand.


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