The Tennyson Connection part 3:
Alfred Tennyson and Sophy Rawnsley
Framed portrait of Alfred Tennyson, c1840 from a painting by Laurence
Sophy Rawnsley was my Great Great Grandfather’s sister. My Grandmother had various tales to tell about Sophy, one being that she was the inspiration behind Alfred Tennyson’s “Airy, Fairy Lilian”. She also claimed that Sophy and Alfred might have married, had it not been for Sophy’s parents who forbade them, Alfred being viewed as a “mere poet”! For years my Grandmother kept a small framed portrait of the young Alfred Tennyson on her bedroom wall. We were told that Alfred had given this to Sophy, on which was written “ever yours A Tennyson” There is no documentary evidence to directly support my grandmother’s story of their desire to marry, but they were certainly fond of each other and Alfred wrote some beautiful poetry for Sophy :
To Sophy 1834
But when sad thoughts arise
Look on me, make my spirit glad
To gaze upon thine eyes
For how can sorrow dwell in mine
If they might always gaze on thine –
Lines written to Sophy in 1836 after a tiff at a Spilsby Ball
That I was harsh to thee let no one know
It were, O Heaven, a stranger tale to tell
Than if the vine had borne the bitter sloe,
Tho’ I was harsh, my nature is not so.
A momentary cloud upon me fell
My coldness was mis-timed like summer snow
Cold words I spoke, yet loved thee warm & well
Was I so harsh? Ah dear it could not be.
Seemed I so cold? What madness moved my blood
To make me thus bely my constant Heart
That watched with love thine earliest infancy
Slow ripening to the grace of womanhood
Thro’ every change that made thee what thou art
Sophy’s father, Rev Thomas Hardwicke Rawnsley, Rector of Halton Holgate was a family friend of Alfred’s father George Clayton Tennyson, so you would think he might have been more receptive to his daughter’s possible alliance with Alfred. However, he had been called out to Somersby when George Clayton was suffering from alcoholism (and possibly epilepsy) so he had probably seen him at his worst. What if this ran in the family? He and his wife may have concluded that marriage between their only daughter and young Alfred was a bad idea, and quickly nipped it in the bud. Sophy Rawnsley married Rev Edward Elmhirst in 1840, living at Hameringham near Halton Holgate for a few years before he became Rector of Shawell, Rugby around 1844. They remained friends with Alfred Tennyson, who often visited them at Shawell.
Sophy Elmhirst
Catherine Rawnsley (Sophy’s sister-in-law) describes one of these visits in her diary for January 1850 . On January 14th she travelled in a “close carriage to Shawell” where Alfred Tennyson was expected to visit. A party of people were invited expressly to meet him, but no poet turned up! Five minutes after the visitors had gone:
“Mr Tennyson was announced. He had sent off the last proofs of the new edition of the Princess that morning, set out to come, lost the train & only got to Shawell at ten o’clock however it was a pleasure to see him even so late …”
Another dinner party took place at Shawell on the 17th January, where a Mr Fellowes:
“improved the Poets appearance by cutting his hair”
The Elmhirsts had a den in their garden where Alfred would disappear to smoke and work on his poetry. Catherine mentions this in her diary for 18th & 19th January:
“A quiet day Alfred very agreeable especially in the evening. He mainly read to us some unpublished elegies in the den … 19th … I was left to cure my cold & help entertain the Poet. I always made breakfast for him then he went to his smoking den, no one was to interrupt him for half an hour as he got wrapped in smoke & mystery over his first pipe at noon we quietly went to tease him a little. Then came luncheon after that going out for a walk or a game at battledore & shuttlecock in the Hall or Greenhouse then a talk in the study & then to dressing & dinner when the mask fell as in a moment from the Poets countenance & all was light. The precise moment of the wondrous change I never could [fail] to watch it as I would, enough that it did take place. After dinner we talked then Alfred read Locksley till Sophy cried & [I listen] in intense wonder & delight watching the ever changing countenance & hearing the peculiar ringing tone of the deep voice.”
Why was Sophy in tears over Locksley Hall? The subject of the poem begins with fond memories of his childhood sweetheart, but then she abandons him due to her parents disapproval. Alfred's reading of this particular poem must have struck a chord with Sophy.
After Alfred Tennyson’s death in October 1892, Sophy’s nephew Hardwicke Rawnsley was keen to gather reminiscences of Tennyson for a book . Sophy had died in 1889 but her husband Edward Elmhirst wrote to Hardie. He was trying to lay his hands on a poem headed “Lines that might have been” :
“They relate to “Lilian” – for they breathe a spirit of bitter disappointment that Lilian will have nothing to say to him, and that she was about to bestow her hand upon another – meaning me, I suppose. I could have sworn the lines were with other poems in your dear Aunt's Davenport in the Drawing Room ... I shall continue my search, & will let you know, when I have discovered them”
Notes and Sources
Lilian by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. First printed in 1830.
“To Sophy Rawnsley 1834” and “Lines written to Sophy in 1836 after a tiff at a Spilsby Ball Langney Archive LA/11/5 ms copy; Rawnsley Archive RR/13/26 ms copy
Photos of Sophie Elmhirst, undated, Rawnsley Archive RR/P/1/23 and Langney Archive LA/O/5/2
Rawnsley Archive RR/1/3 Catherine Rawnsley’s diary 1850
Locksley Hall by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written in 1835 & published in 1842
Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, also known as Canon Rawnsley, or "Hardie" to his family, was one of the founders of the National Trust
Memories of the Tennysons by the Rev H.D. Rawnsley. James MacLehose and Sons Glasgow 1900
Rawnsley Archive RR/13/12 Letter from Edward Elmhirst to Hardie Rawnsley, 4th January 1893