Eliza Tennyson Ms

ABC copy by Ruairidh Greig at Internet Archive

The Tennyson family archive is currently held at Lincoln Central Library and contains the personal library collections of a number of members of the Tennyson family.

There are two manuscript of interest to tune detectives along with a couple of boxes of various musical scores, including a large number of musical settings of Alfred Tennyson's poetry.

The Eliza Tennyson MS is dated 1822 and is the usual small oblong size and shape of the other handwritten MS generally seen. Its date would mean that Eliza (Alfred's mother Elizabeth) would have been living at Somersby in Lincs at the time it was written. The book contains about 24 pieces, mostly written in treble clef although a few have treble and bass clef parts. They are mostly just tunes, although there are a few songs.

The second Ms is a similar small handwritten MS with the following on the title page - "Julia and Clara Tennyson 16th Oct 1826". It was probably a practice book connected with the piano as all the pieces are written in treble and bass clef parts. It contains 11 pieces, including three songs, a Beethoven piece, a piece for harp and a few miscellaneous tunes. Many pieces were untitled or the handwriting is illegible.

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