The blue plaque reads:
Sixteenth Century
House on Older Site
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Began Writing His
"Idylls of the King"
Here in 1856.
ABOUT ALFRED LORD TENNYSON:
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.
Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as "In the Valley of Cauteretz", "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, such as Ulysses, although In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from a brain haemorrhage before they could marry. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, "Ulysses," and "Tithonus." During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success.
A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw", "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all", "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die", "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new". He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations."
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ABOUT THE HANBURY ARMS:
"Retrace your steps to the Hanbury Arms which dates back to the Sixteenth Century and is probably the oldest inhabited building in Caerleon. It certainly still retains much of its ancient appearance. It was built by a member of the Morgan family and was used as their town house until 1593. In the survey of Caerleon Manor, 1622, a Philip Hughes lived here. It was associated with the Hanbury Estate during the time of the tin plate industry and has been storehouse, magistrates' court and lock up, though for the last two centuries it has been a public house and inn under its present name. A little upstream, quite near to the inn, is the site of the original wooden bridge which spanned the river even in Roman times. The river is shallow at this point and is the place of the ancient ford and fishery mentioned from the Thirteenth Century onwards.
Looking at the inn from the riverside, we see the Tudor-type windows and the thickness of the walls. Fixed to the wall on the town side is a stone head, locally said to be Roman, but believed by many to be medieval, perhaps coming from the castle.
Inside the inn has suffered many alterations, but a dog wheel can still be seen in place over a fireplace. The panelled room, used as a courtroom, overlooks the river and the room which was occupied by Alfred Lord Tennyson when he was planning his 'Idylls of the King'. He probably looked out through the mullioned windows at the Usk when in September 1865 he wrote; "The Usk murmurs by the windows and I sit like King Arthur at Caerleon. This is a most quiet village of about 1,500 inhabitants with a little museum of Roman tombstones and other things.""
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