It is rather surprising to read in the _People's Cyclopedia_, Johnson's,
Lippincott's and elsewhere, that Tennyson was raised to the peerage in
1883 as "Baron d'Eyncourt," etc. This he cannot properly be called,
though a descendant from the ancient house of D'Eyncourt--which long ago
ceased to be a barony. The pedigree of Alfred's grandfather, who belonged
to the Lincolnshire gentry, is traced through ten generations to Edmund,
Duke of Somerset, and two centuries further back to Edward III.'s fourth
son, John of Gaunt. Dr. Tennyson died in the lifetime of his father, and
the D'Eyncourt seat and dignity passed to his younger brother Charles. The
poet's cousin Louis Charles is the present possessor of the family estate
at Bayons. England's noble Laureate (according to Burke's _Peerage_, ed.
of 1888, p. 1361) was created a peer of the realm Jan. 24, 1884, with the
new title--Baron of Aldworth, Surrey, and of Farringford, Isle of Wight.
He took his seat in the House of Lords, Mar. 11, 1884.[44]