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diff --git a/35990.txt b/35990.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35e2b07 --- /dev/null +++ b/35990.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2555 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Lewis Carroll, by Isa Bowman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of Lewis Carroll + Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland + +Author: Isa Bowman + +Release Date: April 29, 2011 [EBook #35990] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF LEWIS CARROLL *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _Miss Isa Bowman as Alice in "Alice in Wonderland"_] + + + + + THE STORY OF + LEWIS CARROLL + + TOLD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE BY + THE REAL ALICE IN WONDERLAND + + MISS ISA BOWMAN + + + WITH A DIARY AND NUMEROUS + FACSIMILE LETTERS WRITTEN TO + MISS ISA BOWMAN AND + OTHERS. ALSO MANY SKETCHES + AND PHOTOS BY LEWIS CARROLL + AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + NEW YORK + E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY + 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET + 1900 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1899 + BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. + + + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + MISS ISA BOWMAN (IN PHOTOGRAVURE) _Frontispiece_ + + LEWIS CARROLL'S ROOM IN OXFORD 9 + + C. L. DODGSON 13 + + A CHINAMAN 17 + + BEGGAR CHILDREN 35 + + ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON 59 + + LEWIS CARROLL'S HOUSE AT EASTBOURNE 65 + + MISS ISA BOWMAN AND MISS BESSIE HATTON AS THE LITTLE + PRINCES IN THE TOWER 73 + + ISA BOWMAN AS DUKE OF YORK 77 + + MISS ISA BOWMAN AS "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" (IN PHOTOGRAVURE) 80 + + THE LITTLE PRINCES 83 + + "DOLLY VARDEN" 95 + + "A TURK" 103 + + FACSIMILE OF A CHARADE 108-109-110 + + + + +LEWIS CARROLL + + +It seems to me a very difficult task to sit down at a desk and write +"reminiscences" of a friend who has gone from us all. + +It is not easy to make an effort and to remember all the little personalia +of some one one has loved very much, and by whom one has been loved. And +yet it is in a measure one's duty to tell the world something of the inner +life of a famous man; and Lewis Carroll was so wonderful a personality, +and so good a man, that if my pen dragged ever so slowly, I feel that I +can at least tell something of his life which is worthy the telling. + +Writing with the sense of his loss still heavy upon me, I must of +necessity colour my account with sadness. I am not in the ordinary sense +a biographer. I cannot set down a critical estimate, a cold, dispassionate +summing-up of a man I loved; but I can write of a few things that happened +when I was a little girl, and when he used to say to me that I was "_his_ +little girl." + +The gracious presence of Lewis Carroll is with us no longer. Never again +will his hand hold mine, and I shall never hear his voice more in this +world. Forever while I live that kindly influence will be gone from my +life, and the "Friend of little Children" has left us. + +And yet in the full sorrow of it all I find some note of comfort. He was +so good and sweet, so tender and kind, so certain that there was another +and more beautiful life waiting for us, that I know, even as if I heard +him telling it to me, that some time I shall meet him once more. + +In all the noise and excitement of London, amid all the distractions of a +stage life, I know this, and his presence is often very near to me, and +the kindly voice is often at my ear as it was in the old days. + +To have even known such a man as he was is an inestimable boon. To have +been with him for so long as a child, to have known so intimately the man +who above all others has understood childhood, is indeed a memory on which +to look back with thanksgiving and with tears. + +Now that I am no longer "his little girl," now that he is dead and my life +is so different from the quiet life he led, I can yet feel the old charm, +I can still be glad that he has kissed me and that we were friends. Little +girl and grave professor! it is a strange combination. Grave professor and +little girl! how curious it sounds! yet strange and curious as it may +seem, it was so, and the little girl, now a little girl no longer, offers +this last loving tribute to the friend and teacher she loved so well. +Forever that voice is still; be it mine to revive some ancient memories of +it. + +First, however, as I have essayed to be some sort of a biographer, I feel +that before I let my pen run easily over the tale of my intimate knowledge +of Lewis Carroll I must put down very shortly some facts about his life. + +The Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson died when he was sixty-six years old, +and when his famous book, "Alice in Wonderland," had been published for +thirty-three years. He was born at Daresbury, in Cheshire, and his father +was the Rev. Charles Dodgson. The first years of his life were spent at +Daresbury, but afterwards the family went to live at a place called Croft, +in Yorkshire. He went first to a private school in Yorkshire and then to +Rugby, where he spent years that he always remembered as very happy ones. +In 1850 he went to Christ Church, Oxford, and from that time till the year +of his death he was inseparably connected with "The House," as Christ +Church college is generally called, from its Latin name "AEdes Christi," +which means, literally translated, the House of Christ. + +There he won great distinction as a scholar of mathematics, and wrote many +abstruse and learned books, very different from "Alice in Wonderland." +There is a tale that when the Queen had read "Alice in Wonderland" she was +so pleased that she asked for more books by the same author. Lewis Carroll +was written to, and back, with the name of Charles Dodgson on the +title-page, came a number of the very dryest books about Algebra and +Euclid that you can imagine. + +Still, even in mathematics his whimsical fancy was sometimes suffered to +peep out, and little girls who learnt the rudiments of calculation at his +knee found the path they had imagined so thorny set about with roses by +reason of the delightful fun with which he would turn a task into a joy. +But when the fun was over the little girl would find that she had learnt +the lesson (all unknowingly) just the same. Happy little girls who had +such a master. The old rhyme-- + + "Multiplication is vexation, + Division is as bad, + The rule of three doth puzzle me, + And Practice drives me mad," + +would never need to have been written had all arithmetic lessons been like +the arithmetic lessons given by Charles Dodgson to his little friends. + +As a lecturer to his grown-up pupils he was also surprisingly lucid, and +under his deft treatment the knottiest of problems were quickly smoothed +out and made easy for his hearers to comprehend. "I always hated +mathematics at school," an ex-pupil of his told me a little while ago, +"but when I went up to Oxford I learnt from Mr. Dodgson to look upon my +mathematics as the most delightful of all my studies. His lectures were +never dry." + +For twenty-six years he lectured at Oxford, finally giving up his post in +1881. From that time to the time of his death he remained in his college, +taking no actual part in the tuition, but still enjoying the Fellowship +that he had won in 1861. + +This is an official account, a brief sketch of an intensely interesting +life. It tells little save that Lewis Carroll was a clever mathematician +and a sympathetic teacher; it shall be my work to present him as he was +from a more human point of view. + +Lewis Carroll was a man of medium height. When I knew him his hair was a +silver-grey, rather longer than it was the fashion to wear, and his eyes +were a deep blue. He was clean shaven, and, as he walked, always seemed a +little unsteady in his gait. At Oxford he was a well-known figure. He was +a little eccentric in his clothes. In the coldest weather he would never +wear an overcoat, and he had a curious habit of always wearing, in all +seasons of the year, a pair of grey and black cotton gloves. + +But for the whiteness of his hair it was difficult to tell his age from +his face, for there were no wrinkles on it. He had a curiously womanish +face, and, in direct contradiction to his real character, there seemed to +be little strength in it. One reads a great deal about the lines that a +man's life paints in his face, and there are many people who believe that +character is indicated by the curves of flesh and bone. I do not, and +never shall, believe it is true, and Lewis Carroll is only one of many +instances to support my theory. He was as firm and self-contained as a man +may be, but there was little to show it in his face. + +Yet you could easily discern it in the way in which he met and talked with +his friends. When he shook hands with you--he had firm white hands, rather +large--his grip was strong and steadfast. Every one knows the kind of man +of whom it is said "his hands were all soft and flabby when he said, +'How-do-you-do.'" Well, Lewis Carroll was not a bit like that. Every one +says when he shook your hand the pressure of his was full of strength, +and you felt here indeed was a man to admire and to love. The expression +in his eyes was also very kind and charming. + + +[Illustration: LEWIS CARROLL'S ROOM IN OXFORD IN WHICH "ALICE IN +WONDERLAND" WAS WRITTEN] + + +He used to look at me, when we met, in the very tenderest, gentlest way. +Of course on an ordinary occasion I knew that his interested glance did +not mean anything of any extra importance. Nothing could have happened +since I had seen him last, yet, at the same time, his look was always so +deeply sympathetic and benevolent that one could hardly help feeling it +meant a great deal more than the expression of the ordinary man. + +He was afflicted with what I believe is known as "Housemaid's knee," and +this made his movements singularly jerky and abrupt. Then again he found +it impossible to avoid stammering in his speech. He would, when engaged in +an animated conversation with a friend, talk quickly and well for a few +minutes, and then suddenly and without any very apparent cause would +begin to stutter so much, that it was often difficult to understand him. +He was very conscious of this impediment, and he tried hard to cure +himself. For several years he read a scene from some play of Shakespeare's +every day aloud, but despite this he was never quite able to cure himself +of the habit. Many people would have found this a great hindrance to the +affairs of ordinary life, and would have felt it deeply. Lewis Carroll was +different. His mind and life were so simple and open that there was no +room in them for self-consciousness, and I have often heard him jest at +his own misfortune, with a comic wonder at it. + +The personal characteristic that you would notice most on meeting Lewis +Carroll was his extreme shyness. With children, of course, he was not +nearly so reserved, but in the society of people of maturer age he was +almost old-maidishly prim in his manner. When he knew a child well this +reserve would vanish completely, but it needed only a slightly +disconcerting incident to bring the cloak of shyness about him once more, +and close the lips that just before had been talking so delightfully. + +I shall never forget one afternoon when we had been walking in Christ +Church meadows. On one side of the great open space the little river +Cherwell runs through groves of trees towards the Isis, where the college +boat-races are rowed. We were going quietly along by the side of the +"Cher," when he began to explain to me that the tiny stream was a +tributary, "a baby river" he put it, of the big Thames. He talked for some +minutes, explaining how rivers came down from hills and flowed eventually +to the sea, when he suddenly met a brother Don at a turning in the avenue. + +He was holding my hand and giving me my lesson in geography with great +earnestness when the other man came round the corner. + + +[Illustration: C. L. DODGSON] + + +He greeted him in answer to his salutation, but the incident disturbed his +train of thought, and for the rest of the walk he became very difficult to +understand, and talked in a nervous and preoccupied manner. One strange +way in which his nervousness affected him was peculiarly characteristic. +When, owing to the stupendous success of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice +Through the Looking-Glass," he became a celebrity many people were anxious +to see him, and in some way or other to find out what manner of man he +was. This seemed to him horrible, and he invented a mild deception for use +when some autograph-hunter or curious person sent him a request for his +signature on a photograph, or asked him some silly question as to the +writing of one of his books, how long it took to write, and how many +copies had been sold. Through some third person he always represented that +Lewis Carroll the author and Mr. Dodgson the professor were two distinct +persons, and that the author could not be heard of at Oxford at all. On +one occasion an American actually wrote to say that he had heard that +Lewis Carroll had laid out a garden to represent some of the scenes in +"Alice in Wonderland," and that he (the American) was coming right away to +take photographs of it. Poor Lewis Carroll, he was in terror of Americans +for a week! + +Of being photographed he had a horror, and despite the fact that he was +continually and importunately requested to sit before the camera, only +very few photographs of him are in existence. Yet he had been himself a +great amateur photographer, and had taken many pictures that were +remarkable in their exact portraiture of the subject. + +It was this exactness that he used to pride himself on in his camera work. +He always said that modern professional photographers spoilt all their +pictures by touching them up absurdly to flatter the sitter. When it was +necessary for me to have some pictures taken he sent me to Mr. H. H. +Cameron, whom he declared to be the only artist who dared to produce a +photograph that was exactly like its subject. This is one of the +photographs of me that Mr. Cameron took, and Lewis Carroll always declared +that it was a perfect specimen of portrait work. + +Many of the photographs of children in this book are Lewis Carroll's work. +Miss Beatrice Hatch, to whose kindness I am indebted for these photographs +and for much interesting information, writes in the _Strand Magazine_ +(April 1898): + + "My earliest recollections of Mr. Dodgson are connected with + photography. He was very fond of this art at one time, though he had + entirely given it up for many years latterly. He kept various costumes + and 'properties' with which to dress us up, and, of course, that added + to the fun. What child would not thoroughly enjoy personating a + Japanese or a beggar child, or a gipsy or an Indian? Sometimes there + were excursions to the roof of the college, which was easily + accessible from the windows of the studio. Or you might stand by your + friend's side in the tiny dark room and watch him while he poured the + contents of several little strong-smelling bottles on to the glass + picture of yourself that looked so funny with its black face." + + +[Illustration: A CHINAMAN] + + +Yet, despite his love for the photographer's art, he hated the idea of +having his own picture taken for the benefit of a curious world. The +shyness that made him nervous in the presence of strangers made the idea +that any one who cared to stare into a shop window could examine and +criticise his portrait extremely repulsive to him. + +I remember that this shyness of his was the only occasion of anything +approaching a quarrel between us. + +I had an idle trick of drawing caricatures when I was a child, and one day +when he was writing some letters I began to make a picture of him on the +back of an envelope. I quite forget what the drawing was like--probably it +was an abominable libel--but suddenly he turned round and saw what I was +doing. He got up from his seat and turned very red, frightening me very +much. Then he took my poor little drawing, and tearing it into small +pieces threw it into the fire without a word. Afterwards he came suddenly +to me, and saying nothing, caught me up in his arms and kissed me +passionately. I was only some ten or eleven years of age at the time, but +now the incident comes back to me very clearly, and I can see it as if it +happened but yesterday--the sudden snatching of my picture, the hurried +striding across the room, and then the tender light in his face as he +caught me up to him and kissed me. + +I used to see a good deal of him at Oxford, and I was constantly in Christ +Church. He would invite me to stay with him and find me rooms just outside +the college gates, where I was put into charge of an elderly dame, whose +name, if I do not forget, was Mrs. Buxall. I would spend long happy days +with my uncle, and at nine o'clock I was taken over to the little house in +St. Aldates and delivered into the hands of the landlady, who put me to +bed. + +In the morning I was awakened by the deep reverberations of "Great Tom" +calling Oxford to wake and begin the new day. Those times were very +pleasant, and the remembrance of them lingers with me still. Lewis +Carroll at the time of which I am speaking had two tiny turret rooms, one +on each side of his staircase in Christ Church. He always used to tell me +that when I grew up and became married he would give me the two little +rooms, so that if I ever disagreed with my husband we could each of us +retire to a turret till we had made up our quarrel! + +And those rooms of his! I do not think there was ever such a fairy-land +for children. I am sure they must have contained one of the finest +collections of musical-boxes to be found anywhere in the world. There were +big black ebony boxes with glass tops through which you could see all the +works. There was a big box with a handle, which it was quite hard exercise +for a little girl to turn, and there must have been twenty or thirty +little ones which could only play one tune. Sometimes one of the +musical-boxes would not play properly, and then I always got tremendously +excited. Uncle used to go to a drawer in the table and produce a box of +little screw-drivers and punches, and while I sat on his knee he would +unscrew the lid and take out the wheels to see what was the matter. He +must have been a clever mechanist, for the result was always the +same-after a longer or shorter period the music began again. Sometimes +when the musical-boxes had played all their tunes he used to put them in +the box backwards, and was as pleased as I at the comic effect of the +music "standing on its head," as he phrased it. + +There was another and very wonderful toy which he sometimes produced for +me, and this was known as "The Bat." The ceilings of the rooms in which he +lived at the time were very high indeed, and admirably suited for the +purposes of "The Bat." It was an ingeniously constructed toy of gauze and +wire, which actually flew about the room like a bat. It was worked by a +piece of twisted elastic, and it could fly for about half a minute. + +I was always a little afraid of this toy because it was too lifelike, but +there was a fearful joy in it. When the music-boxes began to pall he would +get up from his chair and look at me with a knowing smile. I always knew +what was coming even before he began to speak, and I used to dance up and +down in tremendous anticipation. + +"Isa, my darling," he would say, "once upon a time there was some one +called Bob the Bat! and he lived in the top left-hand drawer of the +writing-table. What could he do when uncle wound him up?" + +And then I would squeak out breathlessly, "He could really FLY!" + +Bob the Bat had many adventures. There was no way of controlling the +direction of its flight, and one morning, a hot summer's morning when the +window was wide open, Bob flew out into the garden and alighted in a bowl +of salad which a scout was taking to some one's rooms. The poor fellow +was so startled by the sudden flapping apparition that he dropped the +bowl, and it was broken into a thousand pieces. + +There! I have written "a thousand pieces," and a thoughtless exaggeration +of that sort was a thing that Lewis Carroll hated. "A thousand pieces?" he +would have said; "you know, Isa, that if the bowl had been broken into a +thousand pieces they would each have been so tiny that you could have +hardly seen them." And if the broken pieces had been get-at-able, he would +have made me count them as a means of impressing on my mind the folly of +needless exaggeration. + +I remember how annoyed he was once when, after a morning's sea bathing at +Eastbourne, I exclaimed, "Oh, this salt water, it always makes my hair as +stiff as a poker." + +He impressed it on me quite irritably that no little girl's hair could +ever possibly get as stiff as a poker. "If you had said, 'as stiff as +wires,' it would have been more like it, but even that would have been an +exaggeration." And then, seeing that I was a little frightened, he drew +for me a picture of "The little girl called Isa whose hair turned into +pokers because she was always exaggerating things." + +That, and all the other pictures that he drew for me are, I'm sorry to +say, the sole property of the little fishes in the Irish Channel, where a +clumsy porter dropped them as we hurried into the boat at Holyhead. + +"I nearly died of laughing," was another expression that he particularly +disliked; in fact any form of exaggeration generally called from him a +reproof, though he was sometimes content to make fun. For instance, my +sisters and I had sent him "millions of kisses" in a letter. Below you +will find the letter that he wrote in return, written in violet ink that +he always used (dreadfully ugly, I used to think it). + + +[Illustration] + + + "CH. Ch. Oxford, + "_Ap. 14, 1890_. + + "MY OWN DARLING, + + It's all very well for you and Nellie and Emsie to write in millions + of hugs and kisses, but please consider the _time_ it would occupy + your poor old very busy Uncle! Try hugging and kissing Emsie for a + minute by the watch, and I don't think you'll manage it more than 20 + times a minute. 'Millions' must mean 2 millions at least. + + 20)2,000,000 hugs and kisses + 60)100,000 minutes + 12)1,666 hours + 6)138 days (at twelve hours a day) + 23 weeks. + + "I couldn't go on hugging and kissing more than 12 hours a day: and I + wouldn't like to spend _Sundays_ that way. So you see it would take + _23 weeks_ of hard work. Really, my dear child, I _cannot spare the + time_. + + "Why haven't I written since my last letter? Why, how _could_ I, you + silly silly child? How could I have written _since the last time_ I + _did_ write? Now, you just try it with kissing. Go and kiss Nellie, + from me, several times, and take care to manage it so as to have + kissed her _since the last time_ you _did_ kiss her. Now go back to + your place, and I'll question you. + + "'Have you kissed her several times?' + + "'Yes, darling Uncle.' + + "'What o'clock was it when you gave her the _last_ kiss?' + + "'5 minutes past 10, Uncle.' + + "'Very well, now, have you kissed her _since_?' + + "'Well--I--ahem! ahem! ahem! (excuse me, Uncle, I've got a bad cough). + I--think--that--I--that is, you, know, I----' + + "'Yes, I see! "Isa" begins with "I," and it seems to me as if she was + going to _end_ with "I," _this_ time!' + + "Anyhow, my not writing hasn't been because I was _ill_, but because I + was a horrid lazy old thing, who kept putting it off from day to day, + till at last I said to myself, 'WHO ROAR! There's no time to write + now, because they _sail_ on the 1st of April.'[1] In fact, I shouldn't + have been a bit surprised if this letter had been from _Fulham_, + instead of Louisville. Well, I suppose you _will_ be there by about + the middle of May. But mind you don't write to me from there! Please, + _please_, no more horrid letters from you! I _do_ hate them so! And as + for _kissing_ them when I get them, why, I'd just as soon + kiss--kiss--kiss _you_, you tiresome thing! So there now! + + "Thank you very much for those 2 photographs--I liked + them--hum--_pretty_ well. I can't honestly say I thought them the very + best I had ever seen. + + "Please give my kindest regards to your mother, and 1/2 of a kiss to + Nellie, and 1/200 a kiss to Emsie, and 1/2,000,000 a kiss to yourself. + So, with fondest love, I am, my darling, your loving Uncle, + + "C. L. DODGSON." + +And now, in the postscript, comes one of the rare instances in which Lewis +Carroll showed his deep religious feeling. It runs-- + + "_P.S._--I've thought about that little prayer you asked me to write + for Nellie and Emsie. But I would like, first, to have the words of + the one I wrote for _you_, and the words of what they _now_ say, if + they say any. And then I will pray to our Heavenly Father to help me + to write a prayer that will be really fit for them to use." + +Again, I had ended one of my letters with "all join me in lufs and +kisses." It was a letter written when I was away from home and alone, and +I had put the usual ending thoughtlessly and in haste, for there was no +one that I knew in all that town who could have joined me in my messages +to him. He answered me as follows:-- + + "7 LUSHINGTON ROAD, EASTBOURNE, + "_Aug. 30, 90_. + + "Oh, you naughty, naughty, bad wicked little girl! You forgot to put a + stamp on your letter, and your poor old uncle had to pay TWOPENCE! His + _last_ Twopence! Think of that. I shall punish you severely for this + when once I get you here. So _tremble_! Do you hear? Be good enough to + tremble! + + "I've only time for one question to-day. Who in the world are the + 'all' that join you in 'Lufs and kisses.' Weren't you fancying you + were at home, and sending messages (as people constantly do) from + Nellie and Emsie without their having given any? It isn't a good plan + that sending messages people haven't given. I don't mean it's in the + least _untruthful_, because everybody knows how commonly they are sent + without having been given; but it lessens the pleasure of receiving + the messages. My sisters write to me 'with best love from all.' I know + it isn't true; so I don't value it much. The other day, the husband of + one of my 'child-friends' (who always writes 'your loving') wrote to + me and ended with 'Ethel joins me in kindest regards.' In my answer I + said (of course in fun)--'I am not going to send Ethel kindest + regards, so I won't send her any message _at all_.' Then she wrote to + say she didn't even know he was writing! 'Of course I would have sent + best love,' and she added that she had given her husband a piece of + her mind! Poor husband! + + "Your always loving uncle, + "C. L. D." + +These letters are written in Lewis Carroll's ordinary handwriting, not a +particularly legible one. When, however, he was writing for the press no +characters could have been more clearly and distinctly formed than his. +Throughout his life he always made it his care to give as little trouble +as possible to other people. "Why should the printers have to work +overtime because my letters are ill-formed and my words run into each +other?" he once said, when a friend remonstrated with him because he took +such pains with the writing of his "copy." As a specimen of his careful +penmanship the diary that he wrote for me, which is reproduced in this +book in facsimile, is an admirable example. + +They were happy days, those days in Oxford, spent with the most +fascinating companion that a child could have. In our walks about the old +town, in our visits to cathedral or chapel or hall, in our visits to his +friends he was an ideal companion, but I think I was almost happiest when +we came back to his rooms and had tea alone; when the fire-glow (it was +always winter when I stayed in Oxford) threw fantastic shadows about the +quaint room, and the thoughts of the prosiest of people must have +wandered a little into fancy-land. The shifting firelight seemed to +almost aetherealise that kindly face, and as the wonderful stories fell +from his lips, and his eyes lighted on me with the sweetest smile that +ever a man wore, I was conscious of a love and reverence for Charles +Dodgson that became nearly an adoration. + +It was almost pain when the lights were turned up and we came back to +everyday life and tea. + +He was very particular about his tea, which he always made himself, and in +order that it should draw properly he would walk about the room swinging +the tea-pot from side to side for exactly ten minutes. The idea of the +grave professor promenading his book-lined study and carefully waving a +tea-pot to and fro may seem ridiculous, but all the minutiae of life +received an extreme attention at his hands, and after the first surprise +one came quickly to realise the convenience that his carefulness ensured. + + +[Illustration: BEGGAR CHILDREN] + + +Before starting on a railway journey, for instance (and how delightful +were railway journeys in the company of Lewis Carroll), he used to map +out exactly every minute of the time that we were to take on the way. The +details of the journey completed, he would exactly calculate the amount of +money that must be spent, and, in different partitions of the two purses +that he carried, arrange the various sums that would be necessary for +cabs, porters, newspapers, refreshments, and the other expenses of a +journey. It was wonderful how much trouble he saved himself _en route_ by +thus making ready beforehand. Lewis Carroll was never driven half frantic +on a station platform because he had to change a sovereign to buy a penny +paper while the train was on the verge of starting. With him journeys were +always comfortable. + +Of the joys that waited on a little girl who stayed with Lewis Carroll at +his Oxford home I can give no better idea than that furnished by the diary +that follows, which he wrote for me, bit by bit, during the evenings of +one of my stays at Oxford. + + +[Illustrations: Facsimile: + +=Isa's Visit to Oxford.= + +1888. + + +=Chap. I.= + +On Wednesday, the Eleventh of July, Isa happened to meet a friend at +Paddington Station at half-past-ten. She can't remember his name, but she +says he was an old old old gentleman, and he had invited her, she thinks, +to go with him somewhere or other, she can't remember where. + + +=Chap. II.= + +The first thing they did, after calling at a shop, was to go to the +Panorama of the "Falls of Niagara". Isa thought it very wonderful. You +seemed to be on the top of a tower, with miles and miles of country all +round you. The things in front were real, and somehow they joined into the +picture behind, so that you couldn't tell where the real things ended and +the picture began. Near the foot of the Falls, there was a steam-packet +crossing the river, which showed what a tremendous height the Falls must +be, it looked so tiny. In the road in front were two men and a dog, +standing looking the other way. They may have been wooden figures, or part +of the picture, there was no knowing which. The man, who stood next to +Isa, said to another man "That dog looked round just now. Now see, I'll +whistle to him, and make him look round again!" And he began whistling: +and Isa almost expected, it looked so exactly like a real dog, that it +would turn its head to see who was calling it! + +After that Isa and her friend (the Aged Aged Man) went to the house of a +Mr Dymes. Mrs Dymes gave them some dinner, and two of her children, called +Helen and Maud, went with them to Terry's Theatre, to see the play of +"Little Lord Fauntleroy". Little Vera Beringer was the little Lord +Fauntleroy. Isa would have liked to play the part, but the Manager at the +Theatre did not allow her, as she did not know the words, which would have +made it go off badly. Isa liked the whole play very much: the passionate +old Earl, and the gentle Mother of the little boy, and the droll "Mr. +Hobbs", and all of them. + +Then they all went off by the Metropolitan Railway, and the two Miss +Dymeses got out at their station, and Isa and the A.A.M. went on to +Oxford. A kind old lady, called Mrs Symonds, had invited Isa to come and +sleep at her house: and she was soon fast asleep, and dreaming that she +and little Lord Fauntleroy were going in a steamer down the Falls of +Niagara, and whistling to a dog, who was in such a hurry to go up the +Falls that he wouldn't attend to them. + + +=Chap. III.= + +The next morning Isa set off, almost before she was awake, with the +A.A.M., to pay a visit to a little College, called "Christ Church". You go +in under a magnificent tower, called "Tom Tower", nearly four feet high +(so that Isa had hardly to stoop at all, to go under it) into the Great +Quadrangle (which very vulgar people call "Tom Quad".) You should always +be polite, even when speaking to a Quadrangle: it might seem not to take +any notice, but it doesn't like being called names. On their way to Christ +Church they saw a tall monument, like the spire of a church, called the +"Martyrs' Memorial", put up in memory of three Bishops, Cranmer, Ridley +and Latimer, who were burned in the reign of Queen Mary, because they +would not be Roman Catholics. Christ Church was built in 1546. + +They had breakfast at Ch. Ch., in the rooms of the A.A.M., and then Isa +learned how to print with the "Typewriter", and printed several beautiful +volumes of poetry, all of her own invention. By this time it was 1 +o'clock, so Isa paid a visit to the Kitchen, to make sure that the +chicken, for her dinner, was being properly roasted The Kitchen is about +the oldest part of the College, so was built about 1546. It has a +fire-grate large enough to roast forty legs of mutton at once. + +Then they saw the Dining Hall, in which the A.A.M. has dined several +times, (about 8,000 times, perhaps). After dinner, they went, through the +quadrangle of the Bodleian Library, into Broad Street, and, as a band was +just going by, of course they followed it. (Isa likes Bands better than +anything in the world, except Lands, and walking on Sands, and wringing +her Hands). The Band led them into the gardens of Wadham College (built in +1613), where there was a school-treat going on. The treat was, first +marching twice round the garden--then having a photograph done of them, +all in a row--then a =promise= of "Punch and Judy", which wouldn't be +ready for 20 minutes, so Isa, and Co., wouldn't wait, but went back to Ch. +Ch., and saw the "Broad Walk." In the evening they played at "Reversi", +till Isa had lost the small remainder of her temper. Then she went to bed, +and dreamed she was Judy, and was beating Punch with a stick of +Barley-sugar. + + +=Chap. IV.= + +On Friday morning (after taking her medicine very amiably), went with the +A.A.M. (who =would= go with her, though she told him over and over she +would rather be alone) to the gardens of Worcester College (built in 1714) +where they didn't see the swans (who ought to have been on the lake), nor +the hippopotamus, who ought not to have been walking about among the +flowers, gathering honey like a busy bee. + +After breakfast, Isa helped the A.A.M. to pack his luggage, because he +thought he would go away, he didn't know where, some day, he didn't know +when--so she put a lot of things, she didn't know what, into boxes, she +didn't know which. + +After dinner they went to St. John's College (built in 1555), and admired +the large lawn, where more than 150 ladies, dressed in robes of gold and +silver, were not walking about. + +Then they saw the Chapel of Keble College (built in 1870) and then the +New Museum, where Isa quite lost her heart to a charming stuffed Gorilla, +that smiled on her from a glass case. The Museum was finished in 1860. The +most curious thing they saw there was a "Walking Leaf," a kind of insect +that looks exactly like a withered leaf. + +Then they went to New College (built in 1386), & saw, close to the +entrance, a "skew" arch (going slantwise through the wall) one of the +first ever built in England. After seeing the gardens, they returned to +Ch. Ch. (Parts of the old City walls run round the gardens of New College: +and you may still see some of the old narrow slits, through which the +defenders could shoot arrows at the attacking army, who could hardly +succeed in shooting through them from the outside). + +They had tea with Mrs Paget, wife of Dr. Paget one of the Canons of Ch. +Ch. Then, after a sorrowful evening, Isa went to bed, and dreamed she was +buzzing about among the flowers, with the dear Gorilla: but there wasn't +any honey in them--only slices of bread-and-butter, and +multiplication-tables. + + +=Chap. V.= + +On Saturday Isa had a Music Lesson, and learned to play on an American +Orguinette. It is not a =very= difficult instrument to play, as you only +have to turn a handle round and round: so she did it nicely. You put a +long piece of paper in, and it goes through the machine, and the holes in +the paper make different notes play. They put one in wrong end first, and +had a tune backwards, and soon found themselves in the day before +yesterday: so they dared not go on, for fear of making Isa so young she +would not be able to talk. The A.A.M. does not like visitors who only +howl, and get red in the face, from morning to night. + +In the afternoon they went round Ch. Ch. meadow, and saw the Barges +belonging to the Colleges, and some pretty views of Magdalen Tower through +the trees. + +Then they went through the Botanical Gardens, built in the year----no, by +the bye, they never were built at all. And then to Magdalen College. At +the top of the wall, in one corner, they saw a very large jolly face, +carved in stone, with a broad grin, and a little man at the side, helping +him to laugh by pulling up the corner of his mouth for him. Isa thought +that, the next time she wants to laugh, she will get Nellie and Maggie to +help her. With two people to pull up the corners of your mouth for you, it +is as easy to laugh as can be! + +They went into Magdalen Meadow, which has a pretty walk all round it, +arched over with trees: and there they met a lady "from Amurrica," as she +told them, who wanted to know the way to "Addison's Walk," and +particularly wanted to know if there would be "any danger" in going there. +They told her the way, and that =most= of the lions and tigers and +buffaloes, round the meadow, were quite gentle and hardly ever killed +people: so she set off, pale and trembling, and they saw her no more: +only they heard her screams in the distance: so they guessed what had +happened to her + +Then they rode in a tram-car to another part of Oxford, and called on a +lady called Mrs Jeane, and her little grand-daughter, called "Noel", +because she was born on Christmas-Day. ("Noel" is the French name for +"Christmas".) And there they had so much Tea that at last Isa nearly +turned into a "Teaser". + +Then they went home, down a little narrow street, where there was a little +dog standing fixed in the middle of the street, as if its feet were glued +to the ground: they asked it how long it meant to stand there, and it said +(as well as it could) "till the week after next". + +Then Isa went to bed, and dreamed she was going round Magdalen Meadow, +with the "Amurrican" lady, and there was a buffalo sitting at the top of +every tree, handing her cups of tea as she went underneath: but they all +held the cups upside-down, so that the tea poured all over her head and +ran down her face. + + +=Chap. VI.= + +On Sunday morning they went to St. Mary's church, in High Street. In +coming home, down the street next to the one where they had found a fixed +dog, they found a fixed cat--a poor little kitten, that had put out its +head through the bars of the cellar-window, and get back again. They rang +the bell at the next door, but the maid said the cellar wasn't in that +house, and, before they could get to the right door the cat had unfixed +its head----either from its neck or from the bars, and had gone inside. +Isa thought the animals in this city have a curious way of fixing +themselves up and down the place, as if they were hat-pegs. + +Then they went back to Ch. Ch., and looked at a lot of dresses, which the +A.A.M kept in a cupboard, to dress up children in, when they come to be +photographed. Some of the dresses had been used in Pantomimes at Drury +Lane: some were rags, to dress up beggar-children in: some had been very +magnificent once, but were getting quite old and shabby. Talking of old +dresses, there is one College in Oxford, so old that it is not known for +certain when it was built The people, who live there, say it was built +more than 1000 years ago: and, when they say this, the people who live in +the other Colleges never contradict them, but listen most +respectfully----only they wink a little with one eye, as if they didn't +=quite= believe it. + +The same day, Isa saw a curious book of pictures of ghosts. If you look +hard at one for a minute, and then look at the ceiling, you see another +ghost there: only, when you have a black one in the book, it is a =white= +one on the ceiling: when it is green in the book, it is =pink= on the +ceiling. + +In the middle of the day, as usual, Isa had her dinner: but this time it +was grander than usual. There was a dish of "Meringues" (this is +pronounced "Marangs"), which Isa thought so good that she would have liked +to live on them all the rest of her life. + +They took a little walk in the afternoon, and in the middle of Broad +Street they saw a cross buried in the ground, very near the place where +the Martyrs were burned. Then they went into the gardens of Trinity +College (built in 1554) to see the "Lime Walk", a pretty little avenue of +lime-trees. The great iron "gates" at the end of the garden are not real +gates, but all done in one piece: and they couldn't open them, even if you +knocked all day. Isa thought them a miserable sham. + +Then they went into the "Parks" (this word doesn't mean "parks of grass, +with trees and deer," but "parks" of guns: that is, great rows of cannons, +which stood there when King Charles the First was in Oxford, and Oliver +Cromwell fighting against him. + +They saw "Mansfield College", a new College just begun to be built, with +such tremendously narrow windows that Isa was afraid the young gentlemen +who come there will not be able to see to learn their lessons, and will go +away from Oxford just as wise as they came. + +Then they went to the evening service at New College, and heard some +beautiful singing and organ-playing. Then back to Ch. Ch., in pouring +rain. Isa tried to count the drops: but, when she had counted four +millions, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand, two hundred and +forty-seven, she got tired of counting, and left off. + +After dinner, Isa got somebody or other (she is not sure who it was) to +finish this story for her. Then she went to bed, and dreamed she was fixed +in the middle of Oxford, with her feet fast to the ground, and her head +between the bars of a cellar-window, in a sort of final tableau. Then she +dreamed the curtain came down, and the people all called out "encore!" But +she cried out "Oh, not again! It would be =too= dreadful to have my visit +all over again!" But, on second thoughts, she smiled in her sleep, and +said "Well, do you know, after all, I think I wouldn't mind so very much +if I =did= have it all over again!". + +Lewis Carroll. + +THE END] + + +This diary, and what I have written before, show how I, as a little girl, +knew Lewis Carroll at Oxford. + +For his little girl friends, of course, he reserved the most intimate side +of his nature, but on occasion he would throw off his reserve and talk +earnestly and well to some young man in whose life he took an interest. + +Mr. Arthur Girdlestone is able to bear witness to this, and he has given +me an account of an evening that he once spent with Lewis Carroll, which I +reproduce here from notes made during our conversation. + +Mr. Girdlestone, then an undergraduate at New College, had on one occasion +to call on Lewis Carroll at his rooms in Tom Quad. At the time of which I +am speaking Lewis Carroll had retired very much from the society which he +had affected a few years before. Indeed for the last years of his life he +was almost a recluse, and beyond dining in Hall saw hardly any one. Miss +Beatrice Hatch, one of his "girl friends," writes apropos of his +hermit-like seclusion:-- + +"If you were very anxious to get him to come to your house on any +particular day, the only chance was _not_ to _invite_ him, but only to +inform him that you would be at home. Otherwise he would say, 'As you have +_invited_ me I cannot come, for I have made a rule to decline all +_invitations_; but I will come the next day.' In former years he would +sometimes consent to go to a 'party' if he was quite sure he was not to be +'shown off' or introduced to any one as the author of 'Alice.' I must +again quote from a note of his in answer to an invitation to tea: 'What an +awful proposition! To drink tea from four to six would tax the +constitution even of a hardened tea drinker! For me, who hardly ever touch +it, it would probably be fatal.'" + +All through the University, except in an extremely limited circle, Lewis +Carroll was regarded as a person who lived very much by himself. "When," +Mr. Girdlestone said to me, "I went to see him on quite a slight +acquaintance, I confess it was with some slight feeling of trepidation. +However I had to on some business, and accordingly I knocked at his door +about 8.30 one winter's evening, and was invited to come in. + +"He was sitting working at a writing-table, and all round him were piles +of MSS. arranged with mathematical neatness, and many of them tied up with +tape. The lamp threw his face into sharp relief as he greeted me. My +business was soon over, and I was about to go away, when he asked me if I +would have a glass of wine and sit with him for a little. + +"The night outside was very cold, and the fire was bright and inviting, +and I sat down. He began to talk to me of ordinary subjects, of the things +a man might do at Oxford, of the place itself, and the affection in which +he held it. He talked quietly, and in a rather tired voice. During our +conversation my eye fell upon a photograph of a little girl--evidently +from the freshness of its appearance but newly taken--which was resting +upon the ledge of a reading-stand at my elbow. It was the picture of a +tiny child, very pretty, and I picked it up to look at it. + +"'That is the baby of a girl friend of mine,' he said, and then, with an +absolute change of voice, 'there is something very strange about very +young children, something I cannot understand.' I asked him in what way, +and he explained at some length. He was far less at his ease than when +talking trivialities, and he occasionally stammered and sometimes +hesitated for a word. I cannot remember all he said, but some of his +remarks still remain with me. He said that in the company of very little +children his brain enjoyed a rest which was startlingly recuperative. If +he had been working too hard or had tired his brain in any way, to play +with children was like an actual material tonic to his whole system. I +understood him to say that the effect was almost physical! + +"He said that he found it much easier to understand children, to get his +mind into correspondence with their minds when he was fatigued with other +work. Personally, I did not understand little children, and they seemed +quite outside my experience, and rather incautiously I asked him if +children never bored him. He had been standing up for most of the time, +and when I asked him that, he sat down suddenly. 'They are three-fourths +of my life,' he said. 'I cannot understand how any one could be bored by +little children. I think when you are older you will come to see this--I +hope you'll come to see it.' + +"After that he changed the subject once more, and became again the +mathematician--a little formal, and rather weary." + +Mr. Girdlestone probably had a unique experience, for it was but rarely +that Mr. Dodgson so far unburdened himself to a comparative stranger, and +what was even worse, to a "grown-up stranger." + +Now I have given you two different phases of Lewis Carroll at +Oxford--Lewis Carroll as the little girl's companion, and Lewis Carroll +sitting by the fireside telling something of his inner self to a young +man. I am going on to talk about my life with him at Eastbourne, where I +used, year by year, to stay with him at his house in Lushington Road. + +He was very fond of Eastbourne, and it was from that place that I received +the most charming letters that he wrote me. Here is one, and I could +hardly say how many times I have taken this delightful letter from its +drawer to read through and through again. + + "7 LUSHINGTON ROAD, EASTBOURNE, + "_September 17, 1893_. + + "Oh, you naughty, naughty little culprit! If only I could fly to + Fulham with a handy little stick (ten feet long and four inches thick + is my favourite size) how I would rap your wicked little knuckles. + However, there isn't much harm done, so I will sentence you to a + very mild punishment--only one year's imprisonment. If you'll just + tell the Fulham policeman about it, he'll manage all the rest for you, + and he'll fit you with a nice pair of handcuffs, and lock you up in a + nice cosy dark cell, and feed you on nice dry bread, and delicious + cold water. + + +[Illustration: ST. GEORGE THE DRAGON] + + + "But how badly you _do_ spell your words! I _was_ so puzzled about the + 'sacks full of love and baskets full of kisses!' But at last I made + out why, of course, you meant 'a sack full of _gloves_, and a basket + full of _kittens_!' Then I understood what you were sending me. And + just then Mrs. Dyer came to tell me a large sack and a basket had + come. There was such a miawing in the house, as if all the cats in + Eastbourne had come to see me! 'Oh, just open them please, Mrs. Dyer, + and count the things in them!' + + "So in a few minutes Mrs. Dyer came and said, '500 pairs of gloves in + the sack and 250 kittens in the basket.' + + "'Dear me! That makes 1000 gloves! four times as many gloves as + kittens! It's very kind of Maggie, but why did she send so many + gloves? for I haven't got 1000 _hands_, you know, Mrs. Dyer.' + + "And Mrs. Dyer said, 'No, indeed, you're 998 hands short of that!' + + "However the next day I made out what to do, and I took the basket + with me and walked off to the parish school--the _girl's_ school, you + know--and I said to the mistress, 'How many little girls are there at + school to-day?' + + "'Exactly 250, sir.' + + "'And have they all been _very_ good all day?' + + "'As good as gold, sir.' + + "So I waited outside the door with my basket, and as each little girl + came out, I just popped a soft little kitten into her hands! Oh, what + joy there was! The little girls went all dancing home, nursing their + kittens, and the whole air was full of purring! Then, the next + morning, I went to the school, before it opened, to ask the little + girls how the kittens had behaved in the night. And they all arrived + sobbing and crying, and their faces and hands were all covered with + scratches, and they had the kittens wrapped up in their pinafores to + keep them from scratching any more. And they sobbed out, 'The kittens + have been scratching us all night, all the night.' + + "So then I said to myself, 'What a nice little girl Maggie is. _Now_ I + see why she sent all those gloves, and why there are four times as + many gloves as kittens!' and I said loud to the little girls, 'Never + mind, my dear children, do your lessons _very_ nicely, and don't cry + any more, and when school is over, you'll find me at the door, and you + shall see what you shall see!' + + "So, in the evening, when the little girls came running out, with the + kittens still wrapped up in their pinafores, there was I, at the door, + with a big sack! And, as each little girl came out, I just popped into + her hand two pairs of gloves! And each little girl unrolled her + pinafore and took out an angry little kitten, spitting and snarling, + with its claws sticking out like a hedgehog. But it hadn't time to + scratch, for, in one moment, it found all its four claws popped into + nice soft warm gloves! And then the kittens got quite sweet-tempered + and gentle, and began purring again! + + "So the little girls went dancing home again, and the next morning + they came dancing back to school. The scratches were all healed, and + they told me 'The kittens _have_ been good!' And, when any kitten + wants to catch a mouse, it just takes off _one_ of its gloves; and if + it wants to catch _two_ mice, it takes off two gloves; and if it wants + to catch _three_ mice, it takes off _three_ gloves; and if it wants to + catch _four_ mice, it takes off all its gloves. But the moment they've + caught the mice, they pop their gloves on again, because they know we + can't love them without their gloves. For, you see 'gloves' have got + 'love' _inside_ them--there's none _outside_! + + "So all the little girls said, 'Please thank Maggie, and we send her + 250 _loves_, and 1000 _kisses_ in return for her 250 kittens and her + 1000 _loves_!!' And I told them in the wrong order! and they said they + hadn't. + + "Your loving old Uncle, + "C. L. D. + + "Love and kisses to Nellie and Emsie." + +This letter takes up eight pages of close writing, and I should very much +doubt if any child ever had a more charming one from anybody. The +whimsical fancy in it, the absolute comprehension of a child's intellect, +the quickness with which the writer employs the slightest incident or +thing that would be likely to please a little girl, is simply wonderful. I +shall never forget how the letter charmed and delighted my sister Maggie +and myself. We called it "The glove and kitten letter," and as I look at +the tremulous handwriting which is lying by my side, it all comes back to +me very vividly--like the sound of forgotten fingers on the latch to some +lonely fireside watcher, when the wind is wailing round the house with a +wilder inner note than it has in the daytime. + +At Eastbourne I was happier even with Lewis Carroll than I was at Oxford. +We seemed more free, and there was the air of holiday over it all. Every +day of my stay at the house in Lushington Road was a perfect dream of +delight. + +There was one regular and fixed routine which hardly ever varied, and +which I came to know by heart; and I will write an account of it here, +and ask any little girl who reads it, if she ever had such a splendid time +in her life. + +To begin with, we used to get up very early indeed. Our bedroom doors +faced each other at the top of the staircase. When I came out of mine I +always knew if I might go into his room or not by his signal. If, when I +came into the passage, I found that a newspaper had been put under the +door, then I knew I might go in at once; but if there was no newspaper, +then I had to wait till it appeared. I used to sit down on the top stair +as quiet as a mouse, watching for the paper to come under the door, when I +would rush in almost before uncle had time to get out of the way. This was +always the first pleasure and excitement of the day. Then we used to +downstairs to breakfast, after which we always read a chapter out of the +Bible. So that I should remember it, I always had to tell it to him +afterwards as a story of my own. + + +[Illustration: "LEWIS CARROLL'S" HOUSE AT EASTBOURNE] + + +"Now then, Isa dearest," he would say, "tell me a story, and mind you +begin with 'once upon a time.' A story which does not begin with 'once +upon a time' can't possibly be a good story. It's _most_ important." + +When I had told my story it was time to go out. + +I was learning swimming at the Devonshire Park baths, and we always had a +bargain together. He would never allow me to go to the swimming-bath--which +I revelled in--until I had promised him faithfully that I would go +afterwards to the dentist's. + +He had great ideas upon the importance of a regular and almost daily visit +to the dentist. He himself went to a dentist as he would have gone to a +hairdresser's, and he insisted that all the little girls he knew should go +too. The precaution sounds strange, and one might be inclined to think +that Lewis Carroll carried it to an unnecessary length; but I can only +bear personal witness to the fact that I have firm strong teeth, and have +never had a toothache in my life. I believe I owe this entirely to those +daily visits to the Eastbourne dentist. + +Soon after this it was time for lunch, and we both went back hand-in-hand +to the rooms in Lushington Road. Lewis Carroll never had a proper lunch, a +fact which always used to puzzle me tremendously. + +I could not understand how a big grown-up man could live on a glass of +sherry and a biscuit at dinner time. It seemed such a pity when there was +lots of mutton and rice-pudding that he should not have any. I always used +to ask him, "Aren't you hungry, uncle, even _to-day_?" + +After lunch I used to have a lesson in backgammon, a game of which he was +passionately fond, and of which he could never have enough. Then came what +to me was the great trial of the day. I am afraid I was a very lazy little +girl in those days, and I know I hated walking far. The trial was, that +we should walk to the top of Beachy Head every afternoon. I used to like +it very much when I got there, but the walk was irksome. Lewis Carroll +believed very much in a great amount of exercise, and said one should +always go to bed physically wearied with the exercise of the day. +Accordingly there was no way out of it, and every afternoon I had to walk +to the top of Beachy Head. He was very good and kind. He would invent all +sorts of new games to beguile the tedium of the way. One very curious and +strange trait in his character was shown on these walks. I used to be very +fond of flowers and of animals also. A pretty dog or a hedge of +honeysuckle were always pleasant events upon a walk to me. And yet he +himself cared for neither flowers nor animals. Tender and kind as he was, +simple and unassuming in all his tastes, yet he did not like flowers! I +confess that even now I find it hard to understand. He knew children so +thoroughly and well--perhaps better than any one else--that it is all the +stranger that he did not care for things that generally attract them so +much. However, be that as it may, the fact remained. When I was in +raptures over a poppy or a dogrose, he would try hard to be as interested +as I was, but even to my childish eyes it was an obvious effort, and he +would always rather invent some new game for us to play at. Once, and once +only, I remember him to have taken an interest in a flower, and that was +because of the folk-lore that was attached to it, and not because of the +beauty of the flower itself. + +We used to walk into the country that stretched, in beautiful natural +avenues of trees, inland from Eastbourne. One day while we sat under a +great tree, and the hum of the myriad insect life rivalled the murmur of +the far-away waves, he took a foxglove from the heap that lay in my lap +and told me the story of how they came by their name; how, in the old +days, when, all over England, there were great forests, like the forest +of Arden that Shakespeare loved, the pixies, the "little folks," used to +wander at night in the glades, like Titania, and Oberon, and Puck, and +because they took great pride in their dainty hands they made themselves +gloves out of the flowers. So the particular flower that the "little +folks" used came to be called "folks' gloves." Then, because the country +people were rough and clumsy in their talk, the name was shortened into +"Fox-gloves," the name that every one uses now. + +When I got very tired we used to sit down upon the grass, and he used to +show me the most wonderful things made out of his handkerchief. Every one +when a child has, I suppose, seen the trick in which a handkerchief is +rolled up to look like a mouse, and then made to jump about by a movement +of the hand. He did this better than any one I ever saw, and the trick was +a never-failing joy. By a sort of consent between us the handkerchief +trick was kept especially for the walk to Beachy Head, when, about +half-way, I was a little tired and wanted to rest. When we actually got to +the Head there was tea waiting in the coastguard's cottage. He always said +I ate far too much, and he would never allow me more than one rock cake +and a cup of tea. This was an invariable rule, and much as I wished for +it, I was never allowed to have more than one rock cake. + +It was in the coastguard's house or on the grass outside that I heard most +of his stories. Sometimes he would make excursions into the realms of pure +romance, where there were scaly dragons and strange beasts that sat up and +talked. In all these stories there was always an adventure in a forest, +and the great scene of each tale always took place in a wood. The +consummation of a story was always heralded by the phrase, "The children +now came to a deep dark wood." When I heard that sentence, which was +always spoken very slowly and with a solemn dropping of the voice, I +always knew that the really exciting part was coming. I used to nestle a +little nearer to him, and he used to hold me a little closer as he told of +the final adventure. + +He did not always tell me fairy tales, though I think I liked the fairy +tale much the best. Sometimes he gave me accounts of adventures which had +happened to him. There was one particularly thrilling story of how he was +lost on Beachy Head in a sea fog, and had to find his way home by means of +boulders. This was the more interesting because we were on the actual +scene of the disaster, and to be there stimulated the imagination. + +The summer afternoons on the great headland were very sweet and peaceful. +I have never met a man so sensible to the influences of Nature as Lewis +Carroll. When the sunset was very beautiful he was often affected by the +sight. The widespread wrinkled sea below, in the mellow melancholy light +of the afternoon, seemed to fit in with his temperament. I have still a +mental picture that I can recall of him on the cliff. Just as the sun was +setting, and a cool breeze whispered round us, he would take off his hat +and let the wind play with his hair, and he would look out to sea. Once I +saw tears in his eyes, and when we turned to go he gripped my hand much +tighter than usual. + + +[Illustration: MISS ISA BOWMAN AND MISS BESSIE HATTON AS THE LITTLE +PRINCES IN THE TOWER] + + +We generally got back to dinner about seven or earlier. He would never let +me change my frock for the meal, even if we were going to a concert or +theatre afterwards. He had a curious theory that a child should not change +her clothes twice in one day. He himself made no alteration in his dress +at dinner time, nor would he permit me to do so. Yet he was not by any +means an untidy or slovenly man. He had many little fads in dress, but his +great horror and abomination was high-heeled shoes with pointed toes. No +words were strong enough, he thought, to describe such monstrous things. + +Lewis Carroll was a deeply religious man, and on Sundays at Eastbourne we +always went twice to church. Yet he held that no child should be forced +into church-going against its will. Such a state of mind in a child, he +said, needed most careful treatment, and the very worst thing to do was to +make attendance at the services compulsory. Another habit of his, which +must, I feel sure, sound rather dreadful to many, was that, should the +sermon prove beyond my comprehension, he would give me a little book to +read; it was better far, he maintained, to read, than to stare idly about +the church. When the rest of the congregation rose at the entrance of the +choir he kept his seat. He argued that rising to one's feet at such a time +tended to make the choir-boys conceited. I think he was quite right. + +He kept no special books for Sunday reading, for he was most emphatically +of opinion that anything tending to make Sunday a day dreaded by a child +should be studiously avoided. He did not like me to sew on Sunday unless +it was absolutely necessary. + +One would have hardly expected that a man of so reserved a nature as Lewis +Carroll would have taken much interest in the stage. Yet he was devoted to +the theatre, and one of the commonest of the treats that he gave his +little girl friends was to organise a party for the play. As a critic of +acting he was naive and outspoken, and never hesitated to find fault if he +thought it justifiable. The following letter that he wrote to me +criticising my acting in "Richard III." when I was playing with Richard +Mansfield, is one of the most interesting that I ever received from him. +Although it was written for a child to understand and profit by, and +moreover written in the simplest possible way, it yet even now strikes me +as a trenchant and valuable piece of criticism. + + +[Illustration: ISA BOWMAN AS DUKE OF YORK] + + + "CH. CH. OXFORD, + "_Ap. 4, '89_. + + "MY LORD DUKE,--The photographs, which Your Grace did me the honour of + sending arrived safely; and I can assure your Royal Highness that I am + very glad to have them, and like them _very_ much, particularly the + large head of your late Royal Uncle's little little son. I do not + wonder that your excellent Uncle Richard should say 'off with his + head!' as a hint to the photographer to print it off. Would your + Highness like me to go on calling you the Duke of York, or shall I say + 'my own own darling Isa?' Which do you like best? + + "Now I'm going to find fault with my pet about her acting. What's the + good of an old Uncle like me except to find fault? + + "You do the meeting with the Prince of Wales _very_ nicely and + lovingly; and, in teasing your Uncle for his dagger and his sword, you + are very sweet and playful and--'but _that's_ not finding fault!' Isa + says to herself. Isn't it? Well, I'll try again. Didn't I hear you say + 'In weightier things you'll say a _beggar_ nay,' leaning on the word + 'beggar'? If so, it was a mistake. _My_ rule for knowing which word to + lean on is the word that tells you something _new_, something that is + _different_ from what you expected. + + "Take the sentence 'first I bought a bag of apples, then I bought a + bag of pears,' you wouldn't say 'then I bought a _bag_ of pears.' The + 'bag' is nothing new, because it was a bag in the first part of the + sentence. But the _pears_ are new, and different from the _apples_. + So you would say, 'then I bought a bag of _pears_.' + + "Do you understand that, my pet?" + + "Now what you say to Richard amounts to this, 'With light gifts you'll + say to a beggar "yes": with heavy gifts you'll say to a beggar "nay."' + The words 'you'll say to a beggar' are the same both times; so you + mustn't lean on any of _those_ words. But 'light' is different from + 'heavy,' and 'yes' is different from 'nay.' So the way to say the + sentence would be 'with _light_ gifts you'll say to a beggar "_yes_": + with _heavy_ gifts you'll say to a beggar "_nay_".' And the way to say + the lines in the play is-- + + 'O, then I see you will _part_ but with _light_ gifts; + In _weightier_ things you'll say a beggar _nay_.' + + "One more sentence. + + "When Richard says, 'What, would you have my _weapon_, little Lord?' + and you reply 'I _would_, that I might thank you as you call me,' + didn't I hear you pronounce 'thank' as if it were spelt with an 'e'? I + know it's very common (I often do it myself) to say 'thenk you!' as an + exclamation by itself. I suppose it's an odd way of pronouncing the + word. But I'm sure it's wrong to pronounce it so when it comes into a + _sentence_. It will sound _much_ nicer if you'll pronounce it so as to + rhyme with 'bank.' + + "One more thing. ('What an impertinent old uncle! Always finding + fault!') You're not as _natural_, when acting the Duke, as you were + when you acted Alice. You seemed to me not to forgot _yourself_ + enough. It was not so much a real _prince_ talking to his elder + brother and his uncle; it was _Isa Bowman_ talking to people she + didn't _much_ care about, for an audience to listen to--I don't mean + it was that all _through_, but _sometimes_ you were _artificial_. Now + don't be jealous of Miss Hatton, when I say she was _sweetly_ natural. + She looked and spoke like a _real_ Prince of Wales. And she didn't + seem to know that there was any audience. If you are ever to be a + _good_ actress (as I hope you will), you must learn to _forget_ 'Isa' + altogether, and _be_ the character you are playing. Try to think 'This + is _really_ the Prince of Wales. I'm his little brother, and I'm + _very_ glad to meet him, and I love him _very_ much,' and 'this is + _really_ my uncle: he's very kind, and lets me say saucy things to + him,' and _do_ forget that there's anybody else listening! + + "My sweet pet, I _hope_ you won't be offended with me for saying what + I fancy might make your acting better! + + "Your loving old Uncle, + "CHARLES. + + X for NELLIE. + X for MAGGIE. + X for EMSIE. + X for ISA." + +He was a fairly constant patron of all the London theatres, save the +Gaiety and the Adelphi, which he did not like, and numbered a good many +theatrical folk among his acquaintances. Miss Ellen Terry was one of his +greatest friends. Once I remember we made an expedition from Eastbourne to +Margate to visit Miss Sarah Thorne's theatre, and especially for the +purpose of seeing Miss Violet Vanbrugh's Ophelia. He was a great admirer +of both Miss Violet and Miss Irene Vanbrugh as actresses. Of Miss Thorne's +school of acting, too, he had the highest opinion, and it was his often +expressed wish that all intending players could have so excellent a course +of tuition. Among the male members of the theatrical profession he had no +especial favourites, excepting Mr. Toole and Mr. Richard Mansfield. + +He never went to a music-hall, but considered that, properly managed, they +might be beneficial to the public. It was only when the refrain of some +particularly vulgar music-hall song broke upon his ears in the streets +that he permitted himself to speak harshly about variety theatres. + +Comic opera, when it was wholesome, he liked, and was a frequent visitor +to the Savoy theatre. The good old style of Pantomime, too, was a great +delight to him, and he would often speak affectionately of the pantomimes +at Brighton during the regime of Mr. and Mrs. Nye Chart. But of the +up-to-date pantomime he had a horror, and nothing would induce him to +visit one. "When pantomimes are written for children once more," he said, +"I will go. Not till then." + +Once when a friend told him that she was about to take her little girls to +the pantomime, he did not rest till he had dissuaded her. + +To conclude what I have said about Lewis Carroll's affection for the +dramatic art, I will give a kind of examination paper, written for a child +who had been learning a recitation called "The Demon of the Pit." Though +his stuttering prevented him from being himself anything of a reciter, he +loved correct elocution, and would take any pains to make a child +perfect in a piece. + + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE PRINCES] + + +First of all there is an explanatory paragraph. + +"As you don't ask any questions about 'The Demon of the Pit,' I suppose +you understand it all. So please answer these questions just as you would +do if a younger child (say Mollie) asked them." + + _Mollie._ Please, Ethel, will you explain this poem to me. There are + some very hard words in it. + + _Ethel._ What are they, dear? + + _Mollie._ Well, in the first line, "If you chance to make a sally." + What does "sally" mean? + + _Ethel._ Dear Mollie, I believe sally means to take a chance work.[2] + + _Mollie._ Then, near the end of the first verse--"Whereupon she'll + call her cronies"--what does "whereupon" mean? And what are cronies? + + _Ethel._ I think whereupon means at the same time, and cronies means + her favourite playfellows. + + _Mollie._ "And invest in proud polonies." What's to "invest?" + + _Ethel._ To invest means to spend money in anything you fancy. + + _Mollie._ And what's "A woman of the day?" + + _Ethel._ A woman of the day means a wonder of the time with the + general public. + + _Mollie._ "Pyrotechnic blaze of wit." What's pyrotechnic? + + _Ethel._ Mollie, I think you will find that pyrotechnic means quick, + with flashes of lightning. + + _Mollie._ Then the 8 lines that begin "The astounding infant + wonder"--please explain "role" and "mise" and "tout ensemble" and + "grit." + + _Ethel._ Well, Mollie, "role" means so many different things, but in + "The Demon of the Pit" I should think it meant the leading part of the + piece, and "mise" means something extra good introduced, and "tout" + means to seek for applause, but "ensemble" means the whole of the + parts taken together, and grit means something good. + + _Mollie._ "And the Goblins prostrate tumble." What's "prostrate"? + + _Ethel._ I believe prostrate means to be cast down and unhappy. + + _Mollie._ "And his accents shake a bit." What are "accents"? + + _Ethel._ To accent is to lay stress upon a word. + + _Mollie._ "Waits resignedly behind." What's "resignedly"? + + _Ethel._ Resignedly means giving up, yielding. + + _Mollie._ "They have tripe as light to dream on." What does "as" mean + here? and what does "to dream on" mean? + + _Ethel._ Mollie, dear, your last question is very funny. In the first + place, I have always been told that hot suppers are not good for any + one, and I should think that tripe would _not be light_ to dream on + but VERY heavy. + + _Mollie._ Thank you, Ethel. + +I have now nearly finished my little memoir of Lewis Carroll; that is to +say, I have written down all that I can remember of my personal knowledge +of him. But I think it is from the letters and the diaries published in +this book that my readers must chiefly gain an insight into the character +of the greatest friend to children who ever lived. Not only did he study +children's ways for his own pleasure, but he studied them in order that he +might please them. For instance, here is a letter that he wrote to my +little sister Nelly eight years ago, which begins on the last page and is +written entirely backwards--a kind of variant on his famous +"Looking-Glass" writing. You have to begin at the last word and read +backwards before you can understand it. The only ordinary thing about it +is the date. It begins--I mean _begins_ if one was to read it in the +ordinary way--with the characteristic monogram, C. L. D. + + "_Nov. 1, 1891._ + + "C. L. D., Uncle loving your! Instead grandson his to it give to had + you that so, years 80 or 70 for it forgot you that was it pity a what + and: him of fond so were you wonder don't I and, gentleman old nice + very a was he. For it made you that _him_ been have _must_ it see you + so: _grandfather_ my was, _then_ alive was that, 'Dodgson Uncle' only + the. Born was _I_ before long was that, see you, then But. 'Dodgson + Uncle for pretty thing some make I'll now,' it began you when, + yourself to said you that, me telling her without, knew I course of + and: ago years many great a it made had you said she. Me told Isa what + from was it? For meant was it who out made I how know you do! Lasted + has it well how and. Grandfather my for made had you Antimacassar + pretty that me give to you of nice so was it, Nelly dear my." + + +[Illustration] + + +Miss Hatch has also sent me an original letter that Lewis Carroll wrote to +her in 1873, about a large wax doll that he had given her. It is +interesting to notice that this letter, written long before any of the +others that he wrote to me, is identically the same in form and +expression. It is a striking proof how fresh and unimpaired the writer's +sympathies must have been. Year after year he retained the same sweet, +kindly temperament, and, if anything, his love for children seemed to +increase as he grew older. + + "MY DEAR BIRDIE,--I met her just outside Tom Gate, walking very + stiffly, and I think she was trying to find her way to my rooms. So I + said, 'Why have you come here without Birdie?' So she said, 'Birdie's + gone! and Emily's gone! and Mabel isn't kind to me!' And two little + waxy tears came running down her cheeks. + + "Why, how stupid of me! I've never told you who it was all the time! + It was your new doll. I was very glad to see her, and I took her to my + room, and gave her some vesta matches to eat, and a cup of nice melted + wax to drink, for the poor little thing was _very_ hungry and thirsty + after her long walk. So I said, 'Come and sit down by the fire, and + let's have a comfortable chat?' 'Oh no! _no_!' she said, 'I'd _much_ + rather not. You know I do melt so _very_ easily!' And she made me take + her quite to the other side of the room, where it was _very_ cold: and + then she sat on my knee, and fanned herself with a pen-wiper, because + she said she was afraid the end of her nose was beginning to melt. + + "'You've no _idea_ how careful we have to be,' we dolls, she said. + 'Why, there was a sister of mine--would you believe it?--she went up + to the fire to warm her hands, and one of her hands dropped _right_ + off! There now!' 'Of course it dropped _right_ off,' I said, 'because + it was the _right_ hand.' 'And how do you know it was the _right_ + hand, Mister Carroll?' the doll said. So I said, 'I think it must have + been the _right_ hand because the other hand was _left_.' + + "The doll said, 'I shan't laugh. It's a very bad joke. Why, even a + common wooden doll could make a better joke than that. And besides, + they've made my mouth so stiff and hard, that I _can't_ laugh if I try + ever so much?' 'Don't be cross about it,' I said, 'but tell me this: + I'm going to give Birdie and the other children one photograph each, + which ever they choose; which do you think Birdie will choose?' 'I + don't know,' said the doll; 'you'd better ask her!' So I took her home + in a hansom cab. Which would you like, do you think? Arthur as Cupid? + or Arthur and Wilfred together? or you and Ethel as beggar children? + or Ethel standing on a box? or, one of yourself?--Your affectionate + friend, + + "LEWIS CARROLL." + +Among the bundle of letters and MS. before me, I find written on a half +sheet of note-paper the following Ollendorfian dialogue. It is interesting +because, slight and trivial as it is, it in some strange way bears the +imprint of Lewis Carroll's style. The thing is written in the familiar +violet ink, and neatly dated in the corner 29/9/90:-- + +"Let's go and look at the house I want to buy. Now do be quick! You move +so slow! What a time you take with your boots!" + +"Don't make such a row about it: it's not two o'clock yet. How do you like +_this_ house?" + +"I don't like it. It's too far down the hill. Let's go higher. I heard a +nice account of one at the top, built on an improved plan." + +"What does the rent amount to?" + +"Oh, the rent's all right: it's only nine pounds a year." + + * * * * * + +Over all matters connected with letter writing, Lewis Carroll was +accustomed to take great pains. All letters that he received that were of +any interest or importance whatever he kept, putting them away in old +biscuit tins, numbers of which he kept for the purpose. + + +[Illustration: "DOLLY VARDEN"] + + +In 1888 he published a little book which he called "Eight or Nine Wise +Words about Letter Writing," and as this little book of mine is so full of +letters, I think I can do no better than make a few extracts:-- + + "_Write Legibly._--The average temper of the human race would be + perceptibly sweeter if every one obeyed this rule! A great deal of the + bad writing in the world comes simply from writing too quickly. Of + course you reply, 'I do it to save time.' A very good object, no + doubt; but what right have you to do it at your friend's expense? + Isn't _his_ time as valuable as yours? Years ago I used to receive + letters from a friend--and very interesting letters too--written in + one of the most atrocious hands ever invented. It generally took me + about a _week_ to read one of his letters! I used to carry it about in + my pocket, and take it out at leisure times, to puzzle over the + riddles which composed it--holding it in different positions, and at + different distances, till at last the meaning of some hopeless scrawl + would flash upon me, when I at once wrote down the English under it; + and, when several had thus been guessed, the context would help one + with the others, till at last the whole series of hieroglyphics was + deciphered. If _all_ one's friends wrote like that, life would be + entirely spent in reading their letters." + +In writing the last wise word, the author no doubt had some of his girl +correspondents in his mind's eye, for he says-- + + "_My Ninth Rule._--When you get to the end of a note sheet, and find + you have more to say, take another piece of paper--a whole sheet or a + scrap, as the case may demand; but, whatever you do, _don't cross_! + Remember the old proverb, 'Cross writing makes cross reading.' 'The + _old_ proverb,' you say inquiringly; 'how old?' Well, not so _very_ + ancient, I must confess. In fact I'm afraid I invented it while + writing this paragraph. Still you know 'old' is a comparative term. I + think you would be _quite_ justified in addressing a chicken just out + of the shell as 'Old Boy!' _when compared_ with another chicken that + was only half out!" + +I have another diary to give to my readers, a diary that Lewis Carroll +wrote for my sister Maggie when, a tiny child, she came to Oxford to play +the child part, Mignon, in "Booties' Baby." He was delighted with the +pretty play, for the interest that the soldiers took in the little lost +girl, and how a mere interest ripened into love, till the little Mignon +was queen of the barracks, went straight to his heart. I give the diary in +full:-- + +"MAGGIE'S VISIT TO OXFORD + +JUNE 9 TO 13, 1899 + + When Maggie once to Oxford came + On tour as 'Booties' Baby,' + She said 'I'll see this place of fame, + However dull the day be!' + + So with her friend she visited + The sights that it was rich in: + And first of all she poked her head + Inside the Christ Church Kitchen. + + The cooks around that little child + Stood waiting in a ring: + And, every time that Maggie smiled, + Those cooks began to sing-- + Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom! + + 'Roast, boil, and bake, + For Maggie's sake! + Bring cutlets fine, + For _her_ to dine: + Meringues so sweet, + For _her_ to eat-- + For Maggie may be + Bootles' Baby!' + + Then hand-in-hand, in pleasant talk, + They wandered, and admired + The Hall, Cathedral, and Broad Walk, + Till Maggie's feet were tired: + + One friend they called upon--her name + Was Mrs. Hassall--then + Into a College Room they came, + Some savage Monster's Den! + + 'And, when that Monster dined, I guess + He tore her limb from limb?' + Well, no: in fact, I must confess + That _Maggie dined with him_! + + To Worcester Garden next they strolled-- + Admired its quiet lake: + Then to St. John's, a College old, + Their devious way they take. + + In idle mood they sauntered round + Its lawns so green and flat: + And in that Garden Maggie found + A lovely Pussey-Cat! + + A quarter of an hour they spent + In wandering to and fro: + And everywhere that Maggie went, + That Cat was sure to go-- + Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom! + + 'Miaow! Miaow! + Come, make your bow! + Take off your hats, + Ye Pussy Cats! + And purr, and purr, + To welcome _her_-- + For Maggie may be + Bootles' Baby!' + + So back to Christ Church--not too late + For them to go and see + A Christ Church Undergraduate, + Who gave them cakes and tea. + + Next day she entered, with her guide, + The Garden called 'Botanic': + And there a fierce Wild-Boar she spied, + Enough to cause a panic! + + But Maggie didn't mind, not she! + She would have faced _alone_, + That fierce Wild-Boar, because, you see, + The thing was made of stone! + + On Magdalen walls they saw a face + That filled her with delight, + A giant-face, that made grimace + And grinned with all its might! + + A little friend, industrious, + Pulled upwards, all the while, + The corner of its mouth, and thus + He helped that face to smile! + + 'How nice,' thought Maggie, 'it would be + If _I_ could have a friend + To do that very thing for _me_, + And make my mouth turn up with glee, + By pulling at one end!' + + In Magdalen Park the deer are wild + With joy that Maggie brings + Some bread a friend had given the child, + To feed the pretty things. + + They flock round Maggie without fear: + They breakfast and they lunch, + They dine, they sup, those happy deer-- + Still, as they munch and munch, + Shouting the Battle-cry of Freedom! + + 'Yes, Deer are we, + And dear is she! + We love this child + So sweet and mild: + We all rejoice + At Maggie's voice: + We all are fed + With Maggie's bread-- + For Maggie may be + Bootles' Baby!' + + To Pembroke College next they go, + Where little Maggie meets + The Master's wife and daughter: so + Once more into the streets. + + They met a Bishop on their way-- + A Bishop large as life-- + With loving smile that seemed to say + 'Will Maggie be my wife?' + + Maggie thought _not_, because, you see, + She was so _very_ young, + And he was old as old could be-- + So Maggie held her tongue. + + 'My Lord, she's _Bootles' Baby_: we + Are going up and down,' + Her friend explained, 'that she may see + The sights of Oxford-town.' + + 'Now say what kind of place it is!' + The Bishop gaily cried. + 'The best place in the Provinces!' + That little maid replied. + + Next to New College, where they saw + Two players hurl about + A hoop, but by what rule or law + They could not quite make out. + + 'Ringo' the Game is called, although + 'Les Graces' was once its name, + When _it_ was--as its name will show-- + A much more _graceful_ Game. + + The Misses Symonds next they sought, + Who begged the child to take + A book they long ago had bought-- + A gift for friendship's sake! + + Away, next morning, Maggie went + From Oxford-town: but yet + The happy hours she there had spent + She could not soon forget. + + The train is gone: it rumbles on: + The engine-whistle screams: + But Maggie's deep in rosy sleep-- + And softly, in her dreams, + Whispers the Battle-cry of Freedom! + + 'Oxford, good-bye!' + She seems to sigh, + 'You dear old City, + With Gardens pretty, + And lawns, and flowers, + And College-towers, + And Tom's great Bell-- + Farewell, farewell! + For Maggie may be + Booties' Baby!' + + --LEWIS CARROLL." + + +[Illustration: "A TURK"] + + +The tale has been often told of how "Alice in Wonderland" came to be +written, but it is a tale so well worth the telling again, that, very +shortly, I will give it to you here. + +Years ago in the great quadrangle of Christ Church, opposite to Mr. +Dodgson, lived the little daughters of Dean Liddell, the great Greek +scholar and Dean of Christ Church. The little girls were great friends of +Mr. Dodgson's, and they used often to come to him and to plead with him +for a fairy tale. There was never such a teller of tales, they thought! +One can imagine the whole delightful scene with little trouble. That big +cool room on some summer's afternoon, when the air was heavy with flower +scents, and the sounds that came floating in through the open window were +all mellowed by the distance. One can see him, that good and kindly +gentleman, his mobile face all aglow with interest and love, telling the +immortal story. + +Round him on his knee sat the little sisters, their eyes wide open and +their lips parted in breathless anticipation. When Alice (how the little +Alice Liddell who was listening must have loved the tale!) rubbed the +mushroom and became so big that she quite filled the little fairy house, +one can almost hear the rapturous exclamations of the little ones as they +heard of it. + +The story, often continued on many summer afternoons, sometimes in the +cool Christ Church rooms, sometimes in a slow gliding boat in a still +river between banks of rushes and strange bronze and yellow waterflowers, +or sometimes in a great hay-field, with the insects whispering in the +grass all round, grew in its conception and idea. + +Other folk, older folk, came to hear of it from the little ones, and Mr. +Dodgson was begged to write it down. Accordingly the first MS. was +prepared with great care and illustrated by the author. Then, in 1865, +memorable year for English children, "Alice" appeared in its present form, +with Sir John Tenniel's drawings. + +In 1872 "Alice Through the Looking-Glass," appeared, and was received as +warmly as its predecessor. That fact, I think, proves most conclusively +that Lewis Carroll's success was a success of absolute merit, and due to +no mere mood or fashion of the public taste. I can conceive nothing more +difficult for a man who has had a great success with one book than to +write a sequel which should worthily succeed it. In the present case that +is exactly what Lewis Carroll did. "Through the Looking-Glass" is every +whit as popular and charming as the older book. Indeed one depends very +much upon the other, and in every child's book-shelves one sees the two +masterpieces side by side. + + +[Illustrations: Facsimile: + +B.H. + +from C. L. D. + + +A CHARADE. + +[NB FIVE POUNDS will be given to any one who succeeds in writing an +original poetical Charade, introducing the line "My First is followed by a +bird," but making no use of the answer to this Charade. + +Ap 8 1878 + +(signed) + +Lewis Carroll] + + My First is a singular at best + More plural is my Second. + My Third is far the pluralest-- + So plural-plural, I protest, + It scarcely can be reckoned! + + My First is followed by a bird + My Second by believers + In magic art: my simple Third + Follows, too often, hopes absurd, + And plausible deceivers. + + My First to get at wisdom tries-- + A failure melancholy! + My Second men revere as wise: + My Third from heights of wisdom fall + To depths of frantic folly! + + My First is ageing day by day, + My Second's age is ended. + My Third enjoys an age, they say, + That never seems to fade away, + Through centuries extended! + + My Whole? I need a Poet's pen + To paint her myriad phases + The monarch, and the slave, of men-- + A mountain-summit, and a den + Of dark and deadly mazes! + + A flashing light--a fleeting shade-- + Beginning, end, and middle + Of all that human art hath made, + Or wit devised "Go, seek her aid, + If you would guess my riddle."] + + +While on the subject of the two "Alices," I will put in a letter that he +wrote mentioning his books. He was so modest about them, that it was +extremely difficult to get him to say, or write, anything at all about +them. I believe it was a far greater pleasure for him to know that he had +pleased some child with "Alice" or "The Hunting of the Snark," than it was +to be hailed by the press and public as the first living writer for +children. + + "EASTBOURNE. + + "MY OWN DARLING ISA,--The full value of a copy of the French 'Alice' + is L45: but, as you want the 'cheapest' kind, and as you are a great + friend of mine, and as I am of a very noble, generous disposition, I + have made up my mind to a _great_ sacrifice, and have taken L3, 10s. + 0d. off the price. So that you do not owe me more than L41, 10s. 0d., + and this you can pay me, in gold or bank-notes _as soon as you ever + like_. Oh dear! I wonder why I write such nonsense! Can you explain to + me, my pet, how it happens that when I take up my pen to write a + letter to _you_ it won't write sense? Do you think the rule is that + when the pen finds it has to write to a nonsensical good-for-nothing + child, it sets to work to write a nonsensical good-for-nothing letter? + Well, now I'll tell you the real truth. As Miss Kitty Wilson is a + dear friend of yours, of course she's a _sort_ of a friend of mine. So + I thought (in my vanity) 'perhaps she would like to have a copy' from + the author, 'with her name written in it.' So I've sent her one--but I + hope she'll understand that I do it because she's _your_ friend, for, + you see, I had never _heard_ of her before: so I wouldn't have any + other reason. + + "I'm still exactly 'on the balance' (like those scales of mine, when + Nellie says 'it won't weigh!') as to whether it would be wise to have + my pet Isa down here! how _am_ I to make it weigh, I wonder? Can you + advise any way to do it? I'm getting on grandly with 'Sylvie and Bruno + Concluded.' I'm afraid you'll expect me to give you a copy of it? + Well, I'll see if I have one to spare. It won't be out before + Easter-tide, I'm afraid. + + "I wonder what sort of condition the book is in that I lent you to + take to America? ('Laneton Parsonage,' I mean). Very shabby, I expect. + I find lent books _never_ come back in good condition. However, I've + got a second copy of this book, so you may keep it as your own. Love + and kisses to any one you know who is lovely and kissable.-- + + "Always your loving Uncle, + "C. L. D." + +In 1876 appeared the long poem called the "Hunting of the Snark; or, An +Agony in Eight Fits," and besides those verses we have from Lewis +Carroll's pen two books called "Phantasmagoria" and "Rhyme and Reason." + +The last work of his that attained any great celebrity was "Sylvie and +Bruno," a curious romance, half fairy tale, half mathematical treatise. +Mr. Dodgson was employed of late years on his "Symbolic Logic," only one +part of which has been published, and he seems to have been influenced by +his studies. One can easily trace the trail of the logician in Sylvie and +Bruno, and perhaps this resulted in a certain lack of "form." However, +some of the nonsense verses in this book were up to the highest level of +the author's achievement. Even as I write the verse comes to me-- + + "He thought he saw a kangaroo + Turning a coffee-mill; + He looked again, and found it was + A vegetable pill! + 'Were I to swallow you,' he said, + 'I should be very ill'!" + +The fascinating jingle stays in the memory when graver verse eludes all +effort at recollection. I personally could repeat "The Walrus and the +Carpenter" from beginning to end without hesitation, but I should find a +difficulty in writing ten lines of "Hamlet" correctly. + +At the beginning of "Sylvie and Bruno" is a little poem in three verses +which forms an acrostic on my name. I quote it-- + + "Is all our life, then, but a dream, + Seen faintly in the golden gleam + Athwart Time's dark resistless stream? + + Bowed to the earth with bitter woe, + Or laughing at some raree-show, + We flutter idly to and fro. + + Man's little day in haste we spend, + And, from its merry noontide, send + No glance to meet the silent end." + +You see that if you take the first letter of each line, or if you take the +first three letters of the first line of each verse, you get the name Isa +Bowman. + + +[Illustration: Facsimile: + +Prologue + +[Enter Beatrice, leading Wilfred She leaves him to centre (front) & after +going round on tip-toe to make sure they are not overheard returns & takes +his arm.] + + B. "Wiffie! I'm sure that something is the matter! + All day there's been--oh such a fuss and clatter! + Mamma's been trying on a funny dress-- + I never =saw= the house in such a mess! + (puts her arm round his neck) + Is there a secret, Wiffie?" + + W. (Shaking her off) "yes, of course!" + + B. "And you won't tell it? (whispers) Then you're very cross! + (turns away from, & clasps her hands, looking up ecstatically) + I'm sure of =this=! It's something =quite= uncommon!" + + W. (stretching up his arms with a mock-heroic air) + "Oh, Curiosity! Thy name is Woman! + (puts his arm round her coaxingly) + Well, Birdie, then I'll tell. (mysteriously) What should you say + If they were going to act--a little play?" + + B. (jumping and clapping her hands) + "I'd say '=How nice=!'" + + W. (pointing to audience) + "But will it please the rest?" + + B. "Oh =yes=! Because, you know, they'll do their best! + [turns to audience] + "You'll praise them, won't you, when you've seen the play? + Just say '=How nice=!' before you go away!" + [they run away hand in hand]. + + Feb 14. 1873.] + + +Although he never wrote anything in the dramatic line, he once wrote a +prologue for some private theatricals, which was to be spoken by Miss +Hatch and her brother. This prologue is reproduced in facsimile on the +preceding page. + +Miss Hatch has also sent me a charade (reproduced on pp. 108-10) which he +wrote for her, and illustrated with some of his funny drawings. + +I have one more letter, the last, which, as it mentions the book "Sylvie +and Bruno," I will give now. + + "CHRIST CHURCH, + "_May 16, '90_. + + "DEAREST ISA,--I had this ('this' was 'Sylvie and Bruno') bound for + you when the book first came out, and it's been waiting here ever + since Dec. 17, for I really didn't dare to send it across the + Atlantic--the whales are so inconsiderate. They'd have been sure to + want to borrow it to show to the little whales, quite forgetting that + the salt water would be sure to spoil it. + + "Also, I've only been waiting for you to get back to send Emsie the + 'Nursery Alice.' I give it to the youngest in a family generally; but + I've given one to Maggie as well, because she travels about so much, + and I thought she would like to have one to take with her. I hope + Nellie's eyes won't get _quite_ green with jealousy, at two (indeed + _three_!) of her sisters getting presents, and nothing for her! I've + nothing but my love to send her to-day: but she shall have _something + some_ day.--Ever your loving + + "UNCLE CHARLES." + +Socially, Lewis Carroll was of strong conservative tendencies. He viewed +with wonder and a little pain the absolute levelling tendencies of the +last few years of his life. I have before me an extremely interesting +letter which deals with social observances, and from which I am able to +make one or two extracts. The bulk of the letter is of a private nature. + + "Ladies have 'to be _much_' more particular than gentlemen in + observing the distinctions of what is called 'social position': and + the _lower_ their own position is (in the scale of 'lady' ship), the + more jealous they seem to be in guarding it.... I've met with just the + same thing myself from people several degrees above me. Not long ago I + was staying in a house along with a young lady (about twenty years + old, I should think) with a title of her own, as she was an earl's + daughter. I happened to sit next her at dinner, and every time I + spoke to her, she looked at me more as if she was looking down on me + from about a mile up in the air, and as if she were saying to herself + 'How _dare_ you speak to _me_! Why, you're not good enough to black my + shoes!' It was so unpleasant, that, next day at luncheon, I got as far + off her as I could! + + "Of course we are all _quite_ equal in God's sight, but we _do_ make a + lot of distinctions (some of them quite unmeaning) among ourselves!" + +The picture that this letter gives of the famous writer and learned +mathematician obviously rather in terror of some pert young lady fresh +from the schoolroom is not without its comic side. One cannot help +imagining that the girl must have been very young indeed, for if he were +alive to-day there are few ladies of any state who would not feel honoured +by the presence of Charles Dodgson. + +However, he was not always so unfortunate in his experience of great +people, and the following letter, written when he was staying with Lord +Salisbury at Hatfield House, tells delightfully of his little royal +friends, the Duchess of Albany's children: + + "HATFIELD HOUSE, HATFIELD, + "HERTS, _June 8, '89_." + + "MY DARLING ISA,--I hope this will find you, but I haven't yet had any + letter from _Fulham_, so I can't be sure if you have yet got into your + new house. + + "This is Lord Salisbury's house (he is the father, you know, of that + Lady Maud Wolmer that we had luncheon with): I came yesterday, and I'm + going to stay until Monday. It is such a nice house to stay in! They + let one do just as one likes--it isn't 'Now you must do some + geography! now it's time for your sums!' the sort of life _some_ + little girls have to lead when they are so foolish as to visit + friends--but one can just please one's own dear self. + + "There are some sweet little children staying in the house. Dear + little 'Wang' is here with her mother. By the way, _I_ made a mistake + in telling you what to call her. She is 'the Honourable Mabel + _Palmer_'--'Palmer' is the family name: 'Wolmer' is the _title_, just + as the _family_ name of Lord Salisbury is 'Cecil,' so that his + daughter was Lady Maud Cecil, till she married. + + "Then there is the Duchess of Albany here, with two such sweet little + children. She is the widow of Prince Leopold (the Queen's youngest + son), so her children are a Prince and Princess: the girl is 'Alice,' + but I don't know the boy's Christian name: they call him 'Albany,' + because he is the Duke of Albany. Now that I have made friends with a + real live little Princess, I don't intend ever to _speak_ to any more + children that haven't any titles. In fact, I'm so proud, and I hold my + chin so high, that I shouldn't even _see_ you if we met! No, darlings, + you mustn't believe _that_. If I made friends with a _dozen_ + Princesses, I would love you better than all of them together, even if + I had them all rolled up into a sort of child-roly-poly. + + "Love to Nellie and Emsie.--Your ever loving Uncle, + + "C. L. D." + X X X X X X X + +And now I think that I have done all that has been in my power to present +Lewis Carroll to you in his most delightful aspect--as a friend to +children. I have not pretended in any way to write an exhaustive +life-story of the man who was so dear to me, but by the aid of the letters +and the diaries that I have been enabled to publish, and by the few +reminiscences that I have given you of Lewis Carroll as I knew him, I hope +I have done something to bring still nearer to your hearts the memory of +the greatest friend that children ever had. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] This refers to my visit to America when, as a child, I played the +little Duke of York in "Richard III." + +[2] At this point the real child's answers begin, the three or four lines +alone were written by Mr. Dodgson himself.--ED. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Underlined passages are indicated by =underline=. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Lewis Carroll, by Isa Bowman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF LEWIS CARROLL *** + +***** This file should be named 35990.txt or 35990.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/9/35990/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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