Beschreibung:

TENNYSON, Alfred, 1st Baron (1809-1892). Unpublished autograph letter signed to the Reverend T[homas] H[ardwicke] Rawnsley, Mablethorpe, 'Saturday' [12 February 1841], one page,8vo , integral address leaf, seal (seal tear in upper corner of 2nd leaf); and an autograph cheque signed in favour of Charles Heard, for £46-12 [shillings], Freshwater 'June 26th/61', one page, 8vo (signature cancelled by National Provincial Bank). A charming letter to an old family friend written when about to leave for Louth: 'I have had enough of the sand & wind & sea. Do not, therefore, send or come a-gigging after me ...'. A postscript added at the head says that he will be at Alford 'on the 15 & leave Louth for some future day'. The Rawnsleys were lifelong friends of the Tennyson family in Lincolnshire, and Thomas Rawnsley was an executor of Alfred's father's will. As a very young man Alfred seems to have been a little in love with Rawnsley's daughter, Sophie, about whose health he enquires in the present letter. She remained his friend long after her marriage and recalled him as a favourite dancing partner. Alfred was married from her brother Robert's house, in 1850. Mablethorpe was an isolated spot on the Lincolnshire coast, about eight miles from Alford. Tennyson wrote to Edward Fitzgerald ten days after the present letter 'I walk about the coast here and have it to myself, sand and sea'. He and his siblings frequently visited Louth, where their maternal aunt, Mary Anne Fytche, offered them a second home. (2)