Mary Thacher Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson: the story of his life

[326] In Oxford, also, Colonel Higginson saw Freeman, the historian, Rawlinson, Montague Bernard, ‘the late “High Joint,” ’ and Miss Thackeray, the novelist, ‘by far the most original and interesting woman I have seen in England. She pressed on me a letter to Tennyson and I expect to go to see him.’ This visit to the poet at the Isle of Wight is minutely described in ‘Cheerful Yesterdays,’ and from the letters only this extract is taken:—

Presently I heard a clamping step and in walked rather heavily and awkwardly a man, the most singular compound of Sam Johnson and Professor Lovering . . . fine eyes under spectacles! . . . He was quite pleasant though never exactly interesting or agreeable, took me to his smoking room to the top of the house, through some lovely gardens full of roses, then to see Mrs. Cameron his neighbor and crony [the amateur photographer].

During his stay in London, Colonel Higginson preached for Mr. Conway at South Place Chapel (Unitarian). This sermon was reviewed in an English paper under the title ‘A Warrior in the Pulpit.’ The author of the article said some anxiety was felt lest Colonel Higginson, whom he described as ‘gentle in speech and manner as Colonel Newcome in society,’ would fail as an effective speaker. These fears were speedily dispelled, for the English writer