13 OCTOBER 1917, Page 16

TENNYSON TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER.

[To THE EDITOR. OP THE " Seeenvon."]

Inc,—In his' interesting article, entitled as above, in the last Spectator Professor Hearnshaw observes that the word " hundred" is nn imperfect rhyme to "thundered," Se. It is indeed—if the latter word is to be rendered with its prose pronuneint ion. But it it ho syncopated thus " thund'red," from the archaic preterite " thunder-ed," and if the letter " r " is " rolled on the tongue," as Tennyson himself is said to have rolled it when he read his verses aloud to his friends, it then becomes not only a perfeet rhyme to "hundred," but its resonance is peculiarly effective in the martial ballad where it occurs. After all, the ear, not the eye, is the final