Tennyson, Alfred, Lord--Milnes, Richard Monckton, ed.

12mo, first edition, presentation copy inscribed in both volumes by tennyson to his sister (volume 1: "Matilda Tennyson, | from her affectionate | brother |  Alfred . | Sept 6th (VI) 1848"'; similarly in volume 2), engraved portrait frontispiece of Keats in volume 1, facsimile of his handwriting in volume 2, advertisement leaf at the end of volume 2, nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards, spines gilt with morocco labels, marbled edges, preserved in folding brown cloth box, minor browning and wear to edges of binding 

Matilda Tennyson, presentation inscription to her by her brother

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
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inscribed by tennyson to his favourite sister matilda.

The poet's younger sister Matilda (""Tilly") (1816-1913) was the third of his four sisters, and outlived all her siblings. Their parents, the Revd Dr George Clayton Tennyson (1778-1831), rector of Somersby, and his wife Elizabeth, had eight sons and four daughters in fourteen years.

The politician and literary patron Richard Monckton Milnes , 1st Baron Houghton (1784-1858), M.P. for Pontefract 1837-1863, was a good friend of Tennyson's at Trinity College, Cambridge, and they kept up a literary correspondence for the rest of their lives. Milnes was at the centre of literary life in England at the time, holding many soireés at which many of the leading men of letters would gather. He recognized Swinburne's talents as a poet from an early age, and it ws through his support that Tennyson became Poet Laureate. He himself wrote poetry and travel books, recording such adventures as his penetration of an eastern harem. He is depicted as Mr Vavasour in Disraeli's novel Tancred.