New Cross, Notiham, Nov
V855071001
[[1856][1], July 10]
[Richard Doyle[2] to Tom Taylor[3]]
[17. Cambridge Terrace]
17. Cambridge Terrace.
July 10
Dear Mr. Taylor,
Wonderful as it may appear and stupid as I may appear I have to tell you that your view from Tennyson’s window has ‘turned up’.[4] It was concealed in the pocket of my sketch book all the time, and when I looked for it before it must have ‘stuck’ while everything else fell out. It should be said that I have not looked at the book from that day to this. The only extenuating circumstance I can give why judgment should not be pronounced against me is ‘invincible ignorance.’
Ever sincerely yours
RD
[Drawing of Tennyson[5] and friends at the bottom of the page][6]
‘In Memoriam’[7]
[Page 4]
P. S. I will either leave it with Tom at the Board of Health,[8] or bring it with me on Thursday next when, if I am not mistaken, I am going to have the pleasure of dining with you –[9]
[1]Most likely 1856, as the letter refers to a visit made earlier that year to the Tennyson’s in March. The watermark date on the letter reads 1855.
[2] Richard Doyle (1824-1883) was an illustrator and watercolor painter. Doyle had a short career with the satirical magazine Punch, serving as a regular contributor of cartoons and whimsical pictorials.In 1850, he left the magazine due to a disagreement with the magazine’s anti-papist religious positions.
[3] Tom Taylor (1817-1880) was a journalist, playwright, and comic writer. Author or adaptor of over 80 plays, Taylor’s most famous work includes a version of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1860), written in consultation with Dickens, and The Ticket-of-Leave Man (1863). His comedies and melodramas were especially successful in America. Taylor was a professor of English at the University College London in 1845 and 1846, and later served as editor of Punch from 1874 to 1880.
[4]Doyle here refers to a drawing he had done at the Tennyson residence while on a visit. In late March of 1856, Taylor, Taylor’s wife, and Doyle all visited the Tennysons at their Farringford HouseinFreshwater, Isle of Wight. See Lady Tennyson’s Journal, ed. James O. Hoge (Charlottesville: VA: University of Virginia Press, 1981), 62-63, for Emily’s recounting of this visit. Writing to Tennyson in December of that year, Doyle explains the origins of this drawing of the “view from Tennyson’s window,” which he now plans to deliver to Taylor: “On the last day of my most agreeable visit to Farringford I began a little sketch of the beautiful view seen from your drawing room windows, and you looked over me, as I sat at work, and said you would like to have it. At the time, with the splendid tints of nature before my eyes, my poor attempt at imitation seemed so worthless that it quite shocked me to think of your possessing it who had the glorious original always in sight. I believe I said nothing, and it must have appeared rude to you. But I secretly determined in my own mind to take it home, and try to improve it, and then to ask you to accept it…” (quoted in The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Vol. II: 1851-1870, ed. Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), 169, n.1).
[5] Tennyson (left) is pictured here in his early, more eccentric style (long hair, flamboyant moustache). Later depictions would capture a more sage-like quality (long beard, dark cloak). Because of Tennyson’s high value of his privacy, there exists a limited number of portraits of him. Though not published, Doyle’s drawing here pries into the personal life of Tennyson to capture a unique view of the poet outside the public view.
[6]In her journal, Emily Tennyson recounts the events of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Taylor and Richard Doyle’s visit to their home at the Isle of Wight. Her entry for March 28, 1856 tells of a walk down to Alum Bay before dinner, which could possibly be the scene of Doyle’s drawing here. SeeLady Tennyson’s Journal, 62-63. Emily also records several other walks during the week of this visit, to which the drawing could refer. Given Emily’s account of the visit, it is possible that the other figures depicted in the drawing are Doyle himself (center), Taylor (right), and Taylor’s wife, Maria Josephina (top). Tennyson, in a letter to Doyle in December of that year, speaks of a “seaskip” done by Doyle that Sir John Simeon had delivered to him. It is likely he is referring to a version of this drawing.There seems to have been some miscommunication between Tennyson and Doyle: Tennyson requesting the “view from Tennyson’s window” picture, and Doyle thinking Tennyson had requested this picture at the seaside.In a letter to Doyle written after Tennyson had received the “seaskip” picture, Tennyson questions whether he had in fact requested this drawing from Doyle at all, feeling quite embarrassed for doing so if he did.See Letter to Richard Doyle, December 19, 1856 in The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Vol. II: 1851-1870, ed. Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), 168-169.
[7] It appears Doyle intends “In Memoriam” to be a title for the drawing. Doyle is playfully using the title of Tennyson’s famous work to describe his visit to the Tennyson residence, which was one that he cherished. Reflecting on this visit, Doyle wrote: “[T]his is the first time that I have fallen in with the ‘right man’ going to the ‘right place’…” (Letters of Tennyson, Vol. II, 160, n.1).
[8] Taylor was the Secretary of the Board of Health from 1854 to 1872, after serving as Assistant Secretary from 1850 to 1854.
[9] I am thankful for the prior work of Dr. Melinda Creech, Manuscript Specialist at the Armstrong Browning Library, on this letter. The transcription above is based, in large part, on her prior work.