THE TENNYSON CENTENARY MEMORIAL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
you allow me to ask if any of your readers will sub- scribe one of the necessary .2150 which now remain to be collected to complete the Tennyson Centenary project of the Lincoln Com- mittee P That Committee determined to give a bronze replica of Woolner's famous bust of Tennyson to the place of his birth, Somersby. The little church, within a hundred yards of his father's door, was in such disrepair that it was feared that unless the fabrie could at once be attended to it would not fitly enshrine the monument. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was called into counsel, with the result that it was estimated that a sum of £500 was necessary to effect theie needed repairs. Quite apart from the memory of the poet, the fourteenth- century building, with its interesting pre-Reformation cross, was well worth preserving.
The Committee have reason to believe that a good number of people who were students of Tennyson did not subscribe because they supposed that the .2500 necessary would be at once forth- coming. This is not the case, for after having secured the bronze replica they find themselves with only £350 in hand for the repair of the church. May I, as a Lincolnshire man whose family has long been connected with the poet, and who knows the neighbour- hood intimately and the condition of the fabric of the church, plead with your readers to help? Subscriptions should be sent at once to Leslie Melville, Esq., The Bank, Lincoln.—I sin, Sir, ho., H. D. Raw-trinxv.
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