tell with the growing glamour of time whether Somersby rectory, if preserved whilst yet there is the opportunity, may not come to be a place of pilgrimage even as is Stratford-on-Avon? The latter spot Americans love to call "Shakespeare's town," as they delight to term England "the old home"; will it ever be that Somersby will be called "Tennyson's village"? The best memorial of the great Victorian poet would be to religiously preserve his birthplace intact as it now is, and was in the poet's youth; better, far better to do this little to his memory than to erect statues in squares or streets, or place stained-glass windows in cathedrals or churches—these can be produced any day! but his birthplace, overgrown with memories and with the glamour of old associations clinging to it, if by any chance this be lost to us it can never be replaced, neither prayers nor money could do it. Gold cannot purchase memories!
The church of Somersby is small but it is picturesque (in my eyes at any rate), and has the charm of unpretentiousness; you may admire a grand cathedral, but a humble fane like this you may love, which is better. The Christian religion was born of humbleness! The infant Saviour in the lowly manger is ever greater than His servant, a lordly bishop in a palace! So a simple, earnest service in such an unadorned church appeals to me infinitely more, brings the reality of true religion nearer to my heart, than the most elaborate ritual in the most magnificent cathedral (which merely appeals to the senses), as though God could only be approached
