The discussion as to the poet's birthday is now practically at rest--his
lordship himself having authoritatively settled the matter. Would that he
would enlighten us on some other perplexing points in his history! Mrs.
Tennyson kept August 6 as Alfred's birthday. Tourists who have hastily
examined the parish registers of Somersby have mistaken the figure 6 for a
5, owing to the fading of the ink "at the back, or left, of the loop."[30]
But careless hackwriters, depending upon the compilations published
decades ago, continue to assert that the Laureate was born August 5;[31]
April 9,[32] or April 6.[33]