ng. They were
given to writing, and in this they were encouraged by their father, who
proved himself a wise and discriminating critic. Alfred early showed
signs of his poetic bent; at the age of twelve he had written an epic of
four thousand lines, and even before this a tragedy and innumerable poems
in blank verse. He was not encouraged, however, to preserve these
specimens of his early powers, and they are now lost.

Alfred attended for a time a small school near his home, but at the age
of seven he was sent to the Grammar School at Louth. While at Louth he
lived with his grandmother, but his days at school were not happy, and he
afterwards looked back over them with almost a shudder. Before he was
twelve he returned home, and began his preparation for the university
under his father's care. His time was not all devoted to serious study,
but was spent in roaming through his father's library, devouring the
great classics of ancient and modern times, and in writing his own poems.
The family each summer removed to Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.
Here Alfred learned to love the sea in all its moods, a love which lasted
through his life.

In 1827, after Frederick had entered Cambridge, the two brothers, Charles
and Alfred, being in want of pocket money, resolved to publish a volume
of poems. They made a selection from their numerous poems, and offered
the book to a bookseller in Louth, For some unknown reason he accepted
the book, and soon after, it was published under the title, _Poems by Two
Brothers_. There were in reality three brothers, as some of Frederick's
poems were included in the volume. The brothers were promised 20 pounds,
but more than one half of this sum they had to take out in books. With
the balance they went on a triumphal expedition to the sea, rejoicing in
the successful launching of their first literary effort.

In 1828 Charles and Alfred Tennyson matriculated at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where their elder brother Frederick had already been for some
time. Alfred was a somewhat shy lad, and did not at once take kindly to
the life of his college. He soon, however, found himself one of a famous
society known as "The Apostles," to which belonged some of the best men
in the University. Not one member of the "Apostles" at this time, but
afterwards made a name for himself, and made his influence felt in the
world of politics or letters. The society met at regular intervals, but
Alfre