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10 October 1892 — Villa Pisani, Vescovana | |
Monday. 10th October [1892]. Walked in the garden as soon as I was dressed with Henry & Mr Colvin & left Vescovana by 12.30 train fm St Elena. Got home at 2 & lunched. Henry & Mr Colvin went out together. I remained at home & also Ola. Wrote letters & had tea. Read aloud to Henry before dinner at 8. The others went out in eveng. I remained at home– Wrote & practised the guitar. Today’s papers are full of Tennyson’s death—a great loss tho’ scarcely unexpected as he had been lately so failing & when we were at Blackdown last month we felt we should never see him more. When in my youth we were so much at Freshwater we made great friends with the Tennysons & were a great deal at Farringford. Lady Tennyson took great notice of me. I was about 16. My sister Kate was still unmarried. My mother hired Mrs Cameron’s cottage there for the summer. Hallam & Lionel were boys of abt 10 & my mother gave them a white pony much to their delight. Sometimes I & my younger sisters Constance & Blanche used to go up to Farringford of an eveng & help Tennyson to water the plants in his garden & Constance who was especially strong in the arm amazed him by the large watering pots she could carry. Tennyson used at first to call me “Ee nid” & we had some difficulty in teaching him to pronounce my name as it should be En-id. He had also to change a word in his idylls “and wedded Enid” to “and married Enid.” He had not known that the Welsh pronunciation was En-id tho’ he told us that he had bought my mother’s Mabinogion just before he was married & had taken it with him on his wedding tour & then began the Idylls. | |
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