In January, 1831, a notice of this volume appeared in the "Westminster Review." After ten pages devoted to a minute criticism of the poems, it concludes thus:
fellow-collegian of Alfred Tennyson. He it was who managed the private theatricals in which Hallam and Kemble sometimes took a part, and at which the poet was doubtless present. On Friday, March 19, 1830, we find them performing "Much Ado about Nothing," with Monckton Milnes as Beatrice, Kemble as Dogberry, and Hallam as Verges.
Two other fellow-collegians at Trinity were William Henry Brookfield, whose recent death in 1874 evoked, as we shall see later on, a touching memorial sonnet from the poet; and the late Dean of Canterbury, Henry Alford, from whose published journal we make the following extracts, affording a pleasant glimpse of college life and early verse-writing:
"July 19, 1830. Tennyson says:
And man must rest till God doth furnish more.'
Later in the same October he writes: "Met Tennant, Hallam, Merivale, and the three Tennysons at Alfred Tennyson's rooms. The latter read some very exquisite poetry of his, entitled 'Anacaona' and 'The Hesperides.'"—Life, Journals, and Letters of Henry Alford, D. D., late Dean of Canterbury, London, 1873.
William Makepeace Thackeray was also a contemporary of Tennyson's at Trinity.
