Autograph letter signed : Haslemere, to John White Field and Eliza Peters Field, [1886] June 20.

Concerning the death of her husband Lionel Tennyson: telling them how deeply touched she was by their letters; writing "We had no truer & kinder friends in the world than yourselves--he was so fond of you. And you understood him so well, & cared for him so much. I knew you would grieve for me and for yourselves too. It has all been so very very sad, so tragic in all the circumstances that I cannot speak of it, & what can I say of myself. I am very desolate & broken down, but I have a duty & a great one in the bringing up of my poor little fatherless boys, & I pray that I may have the strength & courage to fulfil this duty as it should be done. I am alone here with them now, trying to gain a little strength of body & courage with which to face the world"; writing that her father- and mother-in-law, Alfred and Emily Tennyson, are coming soon, and that she had spent a few weeks with them earlier: "they are wonderfully calm & resigned, & [their] health appears to have suffered less than could have been hoped for"; mentioning that she knows the Fields have had a letter from Hallam Tennyson; writing that she wishes she could see them, "but tho' we cannot meet, we can think of one another, & somehow I think the thoughts & sympathy of friends do help."