f Rochester and Gadshill.
These particular graveyards were found to be already closed, and the
family consented to a compromise by which their father should be buried
in the Abbey at an early hour when no strangers would be aware of it.
After his body was laid to rest, the people were admitted to pay their
homage; the universality and the sincerity of their feelings was shown
in a wonderful way. Among men of letters he had reigned in the hearts of
the people, as Queen Victoria reigned among our sovereigns. In the
annals of her reign his name will outlive those of soldiers, of
prelates, and of politicians.

The causes for which he fought have not all been won yet. Officialdom
still dawdles over the work of the State, hearts are still broken by the
law's delays, the path of crime still lies too easily open to the young.
Vast progress has been made; a humane spirit is to be found in the
working of our Government, and a truer knowledge of social problems is
spreading among all classes. But the world cannot afford to relegate
Charles Dickens to oblivion, and shows no desire to do so; his books are
and will be a wellspring of cheerfulness, of faith in human nature, and
of true Christian charity from which all will do well to drink.

ALFRED TENNYSON

1809-92

1809. Born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, August 6.
1816-20. At school at Louth.
1820-7. Educated at home.
1827. _Poems by Two Brothers_, Charles and Alfred.
1828-31. Trinity College, Cambridge.
1830-2. Early volumes of poetry published.
1833. Death of Arthur Hallam at Vienna.
1837. High Beech, Essex.
1840. Tunbridge Wells.
1842. Collected poems, including 'Morte d'Arthur' and 'English Idyls'.
1846. Cheltenham.
1847. _The Princess_.
1850. _In Memoriam_, printed and given to friends before March; published
June. Marriage, June. Poet Laureate, November.
1852. 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.'
1853. Becomes tenant--1856, owner--of Farringford, Isle of Wight.
1855. _Maud_.
1859. First four 'Idylls of the King' published.
1864. _Enoch Arden_.
1869. Second home at Aldworth, near Haslemere.
1875-84. _Plays_ (1875 'Queen Mary', 1876 'Harold', 1884 'Becket').
1880. _Ballads and other Poems_ ('The Revenge', &c.).
1884. Created a Peer of the realm.
1892. October 6, death at Aldworth. October 12, funeral at
Westminster Abbey.

TENNYSON

POET

The Victorians, as a whole, were a generation of fighters. They battled
against Nature's forces,