PREFACE
whereupon Swinburne snapped out, "Why, it's in the Bible!"
No trace has been found of "The Temple of Janus," but the following year Swinburne again tried for the Newdigate. The subject given for the Prize Poem, to be awarded in March 1858, was "The Discovery of the North-West Passage." At this date, the loss of Franklin and his companions was universally accepted, although it was not until May 1859 that McClintock discovered the memorandum proving the death of Franklin to have taken place on the 11th of June, 1847. Swinburne's poem takes for granted that the whole party died together, but it is now known that the leader, by succumbing earlier, escaped the terrible sufferings of those who survived him. Swinburne's verses eloquently transcribe the general sentiment which prevailed all over the world until the return of the Fox in 1859.
In late years, Swinburne was never known to make the slightest reference to the fact that he had entered the lists again, and this time without the support or rivalry of Nichol. His disappointment at failure—for the prize was awarded to a Mr. Francis Low Latham, of Brazenose College— must have been acute. Lord Bryce remembers that the Old Mortality were indignant at Swinburne's not being the winner, from which it
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