Author: Tennyson, Alfred Lord.
Format: Autograph letter signed, to “My dear Mrs Cameron”, “Farringford [Isle of Wight]” blindstamp letterhead, 1p, 17.7 x 11.6cm (folded).
Text includes “My dearest Mrs Cameron, Do you think Mr Cameron would like our carriage for the 1st. It is easier than any he will get here I think & we shall be proud if he will make use of it…”
Alfred Lord Tennyson (British, 1809–1892), poet laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892. He lived in Farringford House on the Isle of Wight from 1853 to 1869, but often returned to winter there.
After an extended visit to Tennyson in 1860, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815–1879) bought the house next door. “A private gate connected the residences and the two families soon started entertaining famous people with music, poetry readings, and amateur plays.” Cameron and her family lived there until 1875.
Cameron took photographs of the poet and his circle of friends several times across the 1860s. Four portraits of Tennyson were published in Alfred, Lord Tennyson and His Friends: A series of 25 portraits in photogravure from the negatives of Mrs. J. M. Cameron and H. H. H. Cameron, 1893, published by Cameron’s son Henry Herschel Hay Cameron. Ref: Wiki; Royal Academy.
Crinkles and old ink stains.
