TO MR. BLACKWOOD.
WINDSOR,
3rd February.
...I have been and still am extremely busy, so busy that anything which I possibly can put off I do. I am working at Richardson now, and will send you the paper by the end of the week. I suppose I ought to be ashamed to confess that, tedious as he often is, I feel less difficulty in getting through him than in reading Fielding, and that as a matter of taste I actually prefer Lovelace to Tom Jones! I suppose that is one of the differences between men and women which even Ladies’ Colleges will not set to rights. Pray don’t tell of me; if I betray my sentiments in public they shall be laid upon the heavily burdened shoulders of what Clarissa would call “my sex,” and your contributor shall sneer at them as in duty bound.
I have been intending for some time to consult you about a long-projected book of mine, ‘Religious Life on the Continent,’ which Mr. Blackett begged me to let him advertise a long time ago for the benefit of some list he wanted to make up, with the proviso that I should not be asked to produce the MS. until my own time. As, however, he has on the one side become impatient, and I on the other am resolved that nothing shall make me rattle together an unsatisfactory book, we have mutually agreed to break our contract in respect to it. I have, however, collected such a heap of material and spent so much money on it that I rather grudge giving up the idea. My plan was to have devoted one volume to France, giving a narrative of the singular revival of religion there thirty years ago, with personal narratives of Lamennais, Lacordaire, and the other notable men concerned, perhaps including our friend Montalembert, and concluding with an account of France in its religious aspect at the present time — an aspect which I rather imagine will be new to a great many English readers. The second volume was to be concerned with the “Religious Life of Germany,” but there I confess my ideas had not shaped themselves to any distinct plan. Now, do you think you would feel inclined to go in for a work of this kind? or that there is any chance of making it pay for all the labour that would be involved? Detached chapters of it, perhaps the whole, might be interesting enough for the Magazine, but of course you are the judge as to whether they would be suitable. Don’t be afraid of disappointing me by a simple negative, for I have not wrought myself to the height of enthusiasm about it, and it would still require a great deal of work. I like the subject, however, and have already done and spent so much that it would be a kind of waste to do nothing more. I have a couple of shelves full of books on the subject just over my head, and painfully apparent as I write, and another heap at the other side from Rolandi, waiting the leisure I have never yet had to bestow upon them. If you thought the project feasible I should go to Germany for six months in order to go thoroughly into that half of my subject.
I have always meant to mention to you what I suppose Mr. Trollope must have done, since he wrote to me through your hands, that I am to follow him in his magazine, ‘St. Paul’s,’ as soon as his present story is completed.
Windsor.
I am very glad you liked the paper on Richardson: I hoped you would. You do not make any reply to my questions in a previous letter, especially about my Religious Life book. I presume this means you do not care to hear anything more of it. But as I am anxious to make my arrangements well in advance, I should like if you would let me know distinctly.10
Windsor.
I enclose proof of ‘John,’ of which Mr. William has just sent me a reminder, and am working at Froude, with some difficulty I confess, having so lately said my say about Mary; and the article will not be a long one, but I hope to be able to send it off to you on Saturday (to-morrow), and I trust you will find it do. This is a long month! We are all in a state of excitement about Tids, who has gone and won the Prince Consort’s prize for French,11 quite promiscuous, neither himself nor anybody else having the least idea that he could possibly succeed, as he is the very youngest of the competitors, and only went in at the last moment with ten days to do the preparation in, which all the others have been busy with for at least half a year. It is his first appearance as public prizeman, and naturally we are all somewhat elated.
I don’t find that I get on well with my essay on the period of George the Second. I fear I should only repeat myself, and that my attempt to give a general view would but come into weak comparison with Macaulay’s famous description of the state of affairs in the end of the previous century, which indeed in many respects might stand for any period. As I don’t see my way to doing it well, perhaps I had better not attempt to do it at all. If you think there is not enough in the twelve biographies to make up the size of book you propose for the reprint, I will throw in another, which will be sufficiently easy to do. I am sorry to have been negligent in sending back the proof, but I wanted to keep the Sketches by me while attempting this summary in which I have failed. Will you let me know whether you would like me to add a thirteenth (unlucky number), or whether I shall get those I have in hand ready at once for press? I might take Duke John of Argyle, and with him a sketch of Scotland of the time of the Porteous Mob, &c., which I should rather like. Pray tell me your mind on the subject. As you have kindly paid me for this paper, I am anxious to do it one way or another, but I would not send you work which I feel to be unsatisfactory. I have been pottering over it for some time, and am immensely dissatisfied with it and myself. Do tell me also, please, if I am to ask leave to engrave Queen Caroline. I hope you mean to have some pictures.
The following letter from Tennyson refers to a request made by Mrs. Oliphant that he would permit the publication of some stanzas of “In Memoriam,” very beautifully set as a part song by Mr. Bridge, then organist of Holy Trinity, Windsor, and now Sir F. Bridge of Westminster.
From Lord Tennyson to Mrs. Oliphant.
Blackdown, Haslemere,
October 18.
Madam, — I forwarded your request to Mr. Strachan, because to him properly belongs the right over my published poems. What he says of my objection to having any part of “In Memoriam” published to music is perfectly correct. Those portions which you have seen so published have been granted to the solicitations of friends not to be refused, as this is now granted to Mr. Carlyle’s, and would, I have no doubt, have been granted to your own, had I had the privilege of your friendship. Pardon my seeming discourtesy, and believe me, your faithful servant,
A. Tennyson.