In an earlier story we recalled how Alfred Lord Tennyson was frightened from their ‘haunted home’ at Warninglid and the house’s association with the notorious Cuckfield Gang.
From another story reproduced in an Australian newspaper we learn of an unexpected visit to the Tennysons by the Prince Consort - at a very inconvenient time.
Presently, while within doors, the books were being sorted and rearranged, all imaginable things strewed over the drawing-room floor, and the chairs and tables in wild disarray, Prince Albert called. He had driven over suddenly from Osborne. The parlour maid went to the front door, heard the Prince announced, and, being bewildered, and not knowing into what room to show them, stood stock still so the equerry, I have been told, took her by the shoulders and turned her round, bidding her lead them in.
The Prince expressed great admiration of the view from the drawing-room window, and one of the party gathered a bunch of cowslips which his Royal Highness said he must take to the Queen.
The Daily News (Perth), 2 Apr 1898, P6, Stories of Lord Tennyson.
Photo: Hand-coloured daguerreotype of Prince Albert in 1848. 8.6 x 6.3 cm. Commissioned by Prince Albert, 1848, Royal Collection, by William Edward Kilburn. Recolourised by the coeditor.
Contributed by Malcolm Davison.
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