PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. (BRITISH 1848-1926)
The Primrose Path, Farringford, 1909
signed H Allingham (lower right)
inscribed, signed and dated (on a label, attached verso)
watercolour
29 x 17 cm

PROVENANCE:
Peter Nahum Ltd, Ryder Street, London SW1
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1989

Farringford (Tennyson's House) Isle of Wight

From the start the Tennysons were keen gardeners, with Alfred cutting the grass and rolling the lawns. He would not hear of cutting down the trees which guaranteed his seclusion. Some idea of the garden beds, full of flowers, can be seen in the paintings of Helen Allingham who illustrated The Homes and Haunts of Tennyson in 1905, after the poet's death.

There were many visitors to Farringford, among them Prince Albert who arrived in 1856, just as the Tennysons were preparing to decorate the house and move in their furniture. Charmed, he left with a bunch of cowslips, promising to bring Queen Victoria over from Osborne. Regrettably, this never happened, although the poet made several visits to her. One famous visitor who did arrive was Garibaldi, who came in 1864, and planted a Wellingtoniana, a hugely tall fir tree, near the house.
Tennyson writes of it as

the waving pine which here

The warrior of Caprera set,

A name that earth will not forget

Till earth has rolled her latest year -

ref: Alfred Tennyson: A Literary Life