PR 4612 B69 1899 MAIN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BEQUEST OF ANITA D. S. BLAKE / ^a J^/^ THE STORY OF LEWIS CARROLL TOLD FOR YOUNG PEOPI L 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 -^^i- NEW YORK E. P. BUTTON ik COMPANY 31 West Twenty-third Street 1900 Copyright, iSqg BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. GIFT Ube Iftntcfterbocker Pvces, "fflcw ]i)orf5 |t)L^^ ILLUSTRATIONS 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 "Alic (in Photogravure) The Little Princes . " Dolly Varden " " A Turk " . Facsimile of a Charade e in Wonderland " 80 83 95 103 108-109-1 10 137 LEWIS CARROLL TT seems to me a very difficult task to sit down at a desk and write "reminis- cences " of a friend who has gone from us all. It is not easy to make an effort and to re- member 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 Car- roll 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 some- thing 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 2 LEWIS CARROLL ordinary sense a biographer. I cannot set down a critical estimate, a cold, dispassion- ate 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 Lon- don, amid all the distractions of a stage life, I know this, and his presence is often very LEWIS CARROLL 3 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 differ- ent from the quiet life he led, I can yet feel the old charm, I can still be elad 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. For- ever that voice is still ; be it mine to revive some ancient memories of it. 4 LEWIS CARROLL 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 Wonder- land," had been published for thirty-three years. He was born at Daresbury, in Che- shire, and his father was the Rev. Charles Dodgson. The first years of his life were spent at Daresbury, but afterwards the fam- ily 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 con- nected with " The House," as Christ Church college is generally called, from its Latin LEWIS CARROLL 5 name " yEdes Christi," which means, hter- ally 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 crirls who learnt the rudiments of calcu- lation 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 o-'irl would find that she had learnt the lesson (all unknowingly) 6 LEWIS CARROLL 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. Dodg- son to look upon my mathematics as the most delightful of all my studies. His lect- ures were never dry." For twenty-six years he lectured at Ox- ford, finally giving up his post in 1881. LEWIS CARROLL 7 From that time to the time of his death he re- mained in his college, taking no actual part in the tuition, but still enjoying the Fellow- ship that he had won in 186 1. This is an official account, a brief sketch of an intensely interesting life. It tells little save that Lewis Carroll was a clever mathe- matician 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 8 LEWIS CARROLL difficult to tell his age from his face, for there were no wrinkles on it. He had a curiously womanish face, and, in direct con- tradiction to his real character, there seemed to be little strength in it. One reads a ereat 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 X Q ^^ O lo LEWIS CARROLL 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. 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 in- terested glance did not mean anything of any extra importance. Nothing could have hap- pened 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 af^icted 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 con- versation with a friend, talk quickly and well for a few minutes, and then suddenly and LEWIS CARROLL n without any very apparent cause would be- gin 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-maldlshly prim In his manner. When he knew a child well this reserve 12 LEWIS CARROLL 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 talk- ing so delightfully. I shall never forget one afternoon when we had been walking in Christ Church mea- dows. On one side of the great open space the little river Cherwell runs through groves of trees towards the I sis, 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 earnest- ness when the other man came round the corner. C. L. DODGSON 13 14 LEWIS CARROLL He greeted him in answer to his saluta- tion, 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 man- ner of man he was. This seemed to him horrible, and he invented a mild deception for use when some autograph-hunter or curi- ous person sent him a request for his signa- ture 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 LEWIS CARROLL 15 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 him- self 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 r6 LEWIS CARROLL 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 in- debted for these photographs and for much interesting Information, writes in the Strand Magazine (April 1898) : " My earliest recollections of Mr. Dodgson are con- nected 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 w^indows of the studio. Or you might stand by your friend's side in the tiny dark room and watch him while he poured the con- tents of several little strong-smelling bottles on to the LEWIS CARROLL 17 glass picture of yourself that looked so funny with its black face." A CHINAMAN Yet, despite his love for the photograph- er's art, he hated the idea of havino- his i8 LEWIS CARROLL 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 por- trait 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 writinor some letters I be^an 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. LEWIS CARROLL 19 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 snatch- ing of my picture, the hurried striding across the room, and then the tender li^ht 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 foro^et, 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 20 LEWIS CARROLL remembrance of them lincrers 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 dis- agreed 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 LEWIS CARROLL 21 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 beean aeain. 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 w^as known as " The Bat." The ceilinufs of the rooms in which he lived at the time were very high indeed, and admira- bly 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 22 LEWIS CARROLL piece of twisted elastic, and It could fly for about half a minute. I was always a little afraid of this toy be- cause 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 LEWIS CARROLL 23 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 exas^oreration 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 mornincr's sea bathinor at East- bourne, 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 24 LEWIS CARROLL even that would have been an exaeeeration." And then, seeing that I was a httle fright- ened, he drew for me a picture of '' The Httle 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 Holy- head. " 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 in- stance, my sisters and I had sent him " mil- lions of kisses " in a letter. Below you will find the letter that he wrote in return, writ- ten in violet ink that he always used (dread- fully ugly, I used to think it). -2/-e>^^ V-*^C 4^ l^^yKxJLB -^^ JH 2a (a}-uJ^ - 25 ^tv^^ Ckm^JLJ J , ^-<^^ ""'■^^ ^^>o->^ ^yy^^^^'yc^e^- 'Urf^-i3^~-C^ 27 ^ ^^ ^^ '^^'^ * ^^^^t^ ^^^SCvy o? CM( ^*rc^^ ^. ^e.^^ /^/^ ^^^(C^^ ^^. I • dKo^,:!J^ ^/ "Gte. " 'So. lis a^ :^ioL^ cc/tc'l Jso. iJzou^iir in fr-ordr h)tre, rLcdL,CLT^cL ^o-nxekou) t^e^ jaUtl u^t^-Ue. jo^otc^r^ l^klrud- ,So Hioct: :>S LEWIS CARROLL you. coJLJL^ tell y^ka^re. iiCv vuLtL^kcxS, foot ^J- tk^^Gll^ ,'^isire^ ^ae a. stfcum-p^kdr ~Tr-Q^?yierLclou.-^ fieuahJr-tfi^ Trails' ^mj^i^ [^ ot ■fiCK u^t^is oir p a.rtr of- M^ rn^cA^re^ ^ The re- Ua^s 'na. A 7U)vt; i'>^<^ i^in^icJ^ ^ h^/ ^wio^n^ \*j rid sfooJi "next "ti .X'Sd. ^clL^u tx> CL^^^e^^i^yu^y,^ J^cCi^ doCj loo 'k^il nro u^yxJ^ J uB't' tlow 'K^c-^ ^^^^ J '/^ tike a. re.(x.t ^oj, tka.ir l/rvo ou^Ld-t^r^l Us iX^CicL 'to Sae- ^1^0 ^CL-s CccUCn^ '^' fl^eci A^eL Mjx?C) w tiii: to -th-e. Kouse. oj- a^ cLii-u-ne-'T-, cLri.cL'tuJii of- her- c/ic-ldr-e^z^ Ca.llecl LEWIS CARROLL 39 ■H-t "^Itt^^ I^orA- PaicH;tle'roy. Loo- vJ0i<2JL rio.\Je -^e "Vkojtre^ oUcL not' clIU^aJ Ji-e/r^ ae ekt^lcL rKot i^%ov) 'tfie^ vooris ^ voKCck would Aaye Piad^ If go of-f ircLcLly.JI^a^ I iJ^ecL 'tfuu vokole^ rilo^y y^ry 7y\ju.clx -. Hic^ p a ssioi^uxtl clit Exi't anoi iJio. c^^ntU JSAI^xe/r- oj- tfie little loj ^ cLiiJ^tK^ droll "Mr. yTa!rlrs']anJ^ clU oftfCa^. Qdf outr (xt-tktOr 3tvXL0'^'^^ CUnJi Xs^cu a.n(L 'the. A•-A•^^^. htt'ct'Q^^iz o^-forcL. A kind old l^J CO, f-l ecL ::t\^rs S^h-lo ru^ , kcx.L in^ '(-i^cL JTscl. -h ' Co-y^^- dn-cL qXz^p art herhon^e. • drJi she. vv>a5 ^o^n^ ^a^'P as/eeo, cLTCj^cLrtcKnrMio^zrlQzr^ sAe- ^^"^^ little^ l^orcL Th^LLnilcro^ vJ&re aouna CLncL Vjki'^'t^^'^^ to a. cLoj , wko w aS crv Sicc/x. a. h^rru iz go u.^'tAe^ Tails tka.tr iiO- ^A/ OU^i 40 LEWIS CARROLL ne.a.Tly -fou-r f-e.et kc^jt Qso ±^uf Usa, fiat rUKnTdilu to" 6 Loop at" all ^ 'tf qq ^>^^^ UT^ ^^^ ptopie. ccxXV Tom, Clticx.Ji']^ ~Y^u. 'sk:SaU alvOcLyc^ Qaddra^^U ; d' ttl^^I^ /-ee??^ ^^^"^ to 'take c^^xi 'TutiCQ, T^urtr L^lr cLo e^n^6' llUe. Joeu)^& CoulleL naime- On^t/ieor ^y ~hCh.ru=,-t Cktcy,, 'tAeij ^^^ <^ tall n^i^LLTrierd: ^ iil^^ LEWIS CARROLL 43 So sAe /outcK lo^ o^^cn^.sAt i.Utkno^ (ZolLeae, C tru.'d.lr Cv^ l^S^Sj ^ai\J_ dclmcTed, tk^ ^a.ro)-Q^ /awn. ^ KJ/(^re -jnoT^. 'tA^o^ IS'O SiLv-e,r^ \<>2reL n^oir w) alk l^'ua ab-otLtr. CiolLe^e. C l^u.d^ u^ 1(9/0) - ank_l^Z^^ T^^u) Mu^enTir.^ U)/iere. X^^ c^Uiibc lost /i.Qr- KtcLtt to a, chcx.'no'Li-i'x^ ^ijlffeJi ^-dtLUol^ thai "^JrtiUct oi^)x£r^ f-roni. u alass CaS^, ^A-e. ^'n.o ft Carious tk cn^ tAeu ^^W ih er^ 44 LEWIS CARROLL -tiaJr Looks -e-Kudlx^ lik^c^ vo'Jirereil ^e^f^ tJCrou-^k ttei yoalC^ one o-f- t^-eforst^^er^ of CAe. old. Ci(rL)"^ails rwrL^ou/n.ci 6^ stlU Stt Some, of- tte oU ^^rroiV Kiel's, thr ovio^L K)/iLc/L~t^ ciefenj_€rs could ^foot: arrows at irk^^ oCttack^'^^ ^'^ntu \A:>hb aou.il Jtarli^ Sac:2eed Cn. sAootun^ of ^r. P(xo^2t on.^ of-iMJ^<^nmi^ ^f^^-Ci, Tk-en^ afte^ c^ Sorrowful ^^^-eTicn^ ^ Xsa ■ -^ erCt to Ued J ctncL Jlreamed sfle.'VJUS iTux-z-i-yu^ ai/oui a'n^Qn(>~tfre 'f'lo\^jers^ CLn\j Aon&yj L'i\,'tfiQ7rL.- Omiu sUces o-f LEWIS CARROLL 45 G'Tz, SckLurdoAj Tsa. na.(L a.M'uj^Ld v_e2lM. cd. ^//^ cccLt- L nstnr u m e-nt ~io p lay ^ 0-5 T-)OLL (mL Aav^ 2o" tu.-r'n^ ^ X^^ndte Toauoi cxifid raund^ : So sfi^di^^ llr nxc eLj SYaxJu pjuctr CL ioTL^ jruace, oj-poufi-er uk.^ a^z^ ot goes '^rou.^n, c^ rrL(xch.iite.^0L^^ t^e.Aole^ i'nStke f^CLpAyr ?n,cUxe. dij^-pe/r-eAd: TLote^ yO^CKy- -L/l-etj /tt-fo re. \j 9,sb2TdlaAj : So ikeyi dcxreJi n6~{r(jo on. for- -jeojr oj- r^'UxkLOtCj J^^a. So (^^^^^ -S/^£ \A)ou,l(l^ %6t b-t cKUe to- talk,, "^Ae. A'A^NJa^s Twlt Z^"^e. vt."&z.75o7^5 \^)y{o otlIk^ ho U)l ^ Whit aet TecL UrStAe. -j-ace^Jr^oyn. morrU^c to H^aJcb XrLthe. CLfl^r>yt-o o-yCjiTeA^ v^ eM:t"^o c4^(^ Ck, CA. rn&cKclovo ^ and 5-AW^e -^^rfs l^io^&i^q l^~/Ajl^(^otle.^eS^ c^ymL'^on^e./ireti^ 46 LEWIS CARROLL TAe?i. ^ey ^^-^ uiTOLLo.k, 'the. SoLo^TLtcal C^aTcLe/yiS , iru.iL't' in tJre^ 'y-e.a.-r— ?^o^ i her- l^itK^-tu)o pe.ojx.i^tz pull a/> me. Corntrs o-f- ^oc^r^ -mou.tjLfor^^ou.^ /lab Ol f^rett^ \^(xik clL round tt] circhecL ovei^ U)itfl 'tries ' ^nct -lAereJ^Cj yi^et a.lacL^ "fronx^ /l^jY^vLTrica^'^ (KS ^he told, tjievr^, vdj^o u)and:eZ td ^^^^ -tte i^o^y if "Ad-t'- Ghe, '^a.S goc7i^ Tou.ri(L ~NCcKGcLo^LerL J^TeajjouJ yjixs ^ trLL-ffalo- siCtcn^ ^ df{h.t^ of^yerj tre.e^ kanctirm her a^^5 of-~teoi. olS she^ 48 LEWIS CARROLL ''tko. C.UJX.S u^5 cde-dioYjTi ^ So tkodri^e tlk. pjDu.recL ckU over Aer heaJL a.n.Ji 'To^ dovon^ To Sir. T^ojnTxjs ch-LLTcJx^^ Ci^K iah. 'S'^ree^b Ttl torVLio^ fion^e y ^^^-n-'i^ street' ^nle-y-t" to tTte 07i£. v^Kere^-tko^ kaJi^oaixJL CL-fuKed ^93)~^^^y /^'^'^^ ^ f-^xecK ccut CL haor- Itttk k'JTeTu^~^o[tkal ^ut ou± uts keaJL -ifiTOiiy^ the, l/-ci^T£ o-^ ifAe ceiiar- \^^nJji-sAj^ cdr trCo^ ntyCt d^or^ h-iit Z^e ma-cX- SacJi i^o, ce^^cL-r- A) (lS Tit^ir^ -iivJr Ko use. ^ aTtdj Ire-fore j^a-Ji il7ifLX^cL its KeoJ! t^in^r f^o?n, i,ts rtack or J^rovi^tKe, t-ctrS ^ c^hA haX oone. IrhSii^. ^^ tkoLco^hL the, o^ivc?7v^ls ct^ this CiM^ kcLve. o^c^rLoos i/Jo^ ^/ /'^ ^!15 -'' ^he-n tKo-j ^^nZ ^acA. ^ dL CLk^o^nl ioo'h^d cct a^tot of- cItzS^CS, voX.<.^/4 LEWIS CARROLL 49 ^rt^pheX. Some o-f tAe^ Presses Aal u-eerv u 5 eX ^^ ^^ ^1"^ 7^^ ^ 7n^«5 aZ^ 2) r^a ry -X f(3;??e i.^;er^ ^^^/ ^ ^r(f55 tyo [tea oar- ckilJireoi, ui: Some Acid Irec')^ ^eYj ^rrtcx^ni/ cce?tir onct^lujt h)ere. (AtaT7xo^ itLtt^ oil. cLnL sAaU^.Tcdk^nc 6-f otL cLresses^ t/iere ls one. Cq [[eoe. ck Ox. -J^rd. So oicL -tha^t-otis n-ot k^ovOr^/oy- ^ruo i^-^^ 'twere. Say Ur w'CLS iruiUr m^y^e^ -irkcin. 1000 years 0-^5 . ^-h.cL ^ ^yojie^'tfiey Say 'thU ,~i'Ae ^eojile kiAo live. LPv^^ot^ey- ^YVK^o^t resfiedrf^y ^^^ tAe^ vo,-nJc '~V/ie. ^^"1^ c/ojy ^ lSa_ SavJ cl. ^t^ru^u-S trook ^ of pietliY^eS o>-f Q^ostl -Xf x^oll loo/<: /-Lari oj^ (^^ f-crr o^ TnuruXTe, ^ cl-kcL ij[en. looA' ctt ^ c^cUrL^^ If oii.. see £\7iol^r- ajiosir i:/ie.re - oniy , -^Ae/i^ yo^ hoLve cl ^^c/c one lr\. ttz, u~dok ^tlr is c^ lojiite one. a-yi, Sfe- 50 LEWIS CARROLL cex^^A^ - ^A^n, 'd~ is ^reen Lrvtk& u-aok^ it CvS p,lrxJc ^n. tAo^ c e itCn^ . Xn^ ^^ ^ri'^dlle o-f-'Pie. cLa.u ^u.s olSllU^ w ds ^r^p-LleTr- i^/iaTv, tL5uLal, ^ke-re^ vOae ^ dusk of^^e^rin^o^LLe.6 " ^Zv(ci is /ircnouL^'Lcei. i^aJr ^Ae \Aj6ulcL /iTeW^ Crcfn^^'^des" ^^ ^ ^^ of- ^^ garde?x. utC not T6a.l ^ dis ^ o'lxt' alL cLono. 6x (me, pieci^ : ancL-tAe^ c^o uXl-^lr op.e7v'tkem^e-\^e7u Cf- ^o^^ knocked (xU- Aay .Xs^-^ou^Ait-Uem (X. nUe eraile- '^'h.nu. LEWIS CARROLL 51 lAjiPh'ireas cml daer^ •' 'IraiyDc.y^/ci!' o-f ^ LL7VS : 'tPiat: L^ ^ ^-recorrouus o^ <^^-^^^nanS \/)h^c.K stood 'tA.e/re- >^ h--€/}T^ TCi^ (Carles tfUt Vir'ot Wa'b Lix ChcfarA^ cunL Oliver 'Wtttr Suck treme7^dously n.c^rro\^ x^CnJowc t/icdr J-6cL vOae o^frcUct'wi^ ^^^^y gentle* -m-^TL- \A)lio Come. t^Bre vOiUfioiri^ ai-U 'to -^^e^ to laaTTLthecr ^e.b6 o7i6jancLuj'dl ~vu:e^ at -7^^6'w CclUo^e. ^ anJi kec^rd^ 6op?ie Then ^cJieiv eke haJL COiA.i'Ctti ■fQuur-rnLlt^onS, "^r^e^ fiu-rclre^ cL^d d eue?^ty -UojAt'~tAou.5a^^j 52 LEWIS CARROLL Af-t-tr cLinner-^ J,^cu j6t~ SomeCr-oaiu or- otker C^l^ ^^ ^^"^ Sure y^ko lIt iA)a&) to -:^iyLisk~t/vL6 story for k^r. ^hen^ ^/le uJt7it tkerriUUe of Oxford^ loctk hrj^aei^asi Y Uie. cjrouTii OLnd ka7-Ae^i ktrt^eeyx^tfie in>JtS of ^ Cellar- UJ inio vo ^ ux.ou^o-rf; \j: finc/i -ial^Ua^^ Tken 5he drea?7ie/t{e ^r-trauv cc^me Icon, dnd i^e fieo,^ ^Q CO. k€^ ^^ ^;^c.7^e / "Bui sAe crUl Oaf: 'Ok, ru^-t c^ciuz ^ 1-6 uj^^U /^ tol (lTQ.a.lful i^ -^ave TYLy v cSut all OV^T- smllei. c}k. her steep ^ a 7^1. Sa^£ 'hTell, do T/ou. Atlom^j (xf'ter c^iL , 1 tfiLTuk X y\)ou2An,lr yYiL7i,iL do v-f-ry ynLtcft. cf J- did fiixve tlr (xll over (xaain,!''^ XjQv^Cs Cajtrotl T.-HTE ENt> LEWIS CARROLL 53 This diary, and what I have written before, show how I, as a Httle girl, knew Lewis Carroll at Oxford. For his little girl friends, of course, he re- served the most intimate side of his nature, but on occasion he would throw off his re- serve 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 durino; our con- versation. 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 soci- ety 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, 54 LEWIS CARROLL one of his "girl friends," writes apropos of his hermit-Hke sechision : — "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 eo to a ' party ' if he was quite sure he was npt 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 LEWIS CARROLL 55 by himself. "When," Mr. Girdlestone said to me, " I went to see him on quite a shght acquaintance, I confess it was with some shght feehng of trepidation. However I had to go on some business, and accord- ingly 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 hlrn 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.l My business was soon over, and I was about to go away, when he asked me If I would have a o^lass 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. Durlnor our 56 LEWIS CARROLL conversation nw eye fell upon a photograph of a little girli—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. Ij '' ' 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, some- thing 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 LEWIS CARROLL 57 actual material tonic to his whole system, ([understood hini 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 child- ren never bored him. He had been stand- ing 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^l 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 '11 come to see it. 'J " After that he changed the subject once more, and became again the mathemati- cian — a little formal, and rather weary." Mr. Girdlestone probably had a unique experience, for it was but rarely that Mr. 58 LEWIS CARROLL 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 Lush- inorton 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 delio^htful letter from its drawer to read throuo^h and throuorh aorain. " 7 LusHiNGTON Road, Eastbourne, » " September 17, 1S93. " 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. How- ever, there is n't much harm done, so I will sentence 6o LEWIS CARROLL you to a very mild punishment — only one year's im- prisonment. If you '11 just tell the Fulham policeman about it, he '11 manage all the rest for you, and he '11 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. *' But how badly you do si)ell 'your words ! I loas 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 oi gloves, and a basket full of kittens !' I'lien 1 understood what you were sending me. And just then Mrs. Dyer came to tell me a large sack and a basket had come. 'J'here was such a miaw- ing in the house, as if all the cats in Eastbourne had come to see me ! ' Oli, 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 Jiaiids, you know, Mrs. Dyer.' " And Mrs. Dyer said, ' No, indeed, you 're 998 hands short of that ! ' " However the ne.xt 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.' LEWIS CARROLL 6i H ( And have they all been 2>ery 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 i)opped 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. JVoic I see why she sent all those gloves, and why there are four times as many gloves as kit- tens ! ' and I said loud to tlie little girls, ' Never mind, my dear children, do your lessons lu'rv nicely, and don't cry any more, and when school is over, you '11 find me at the door, and you shall see what you shall see ! ' " So, in the evening, when the little girls came run- ning 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 had n't time to scratcli. 62 LEWIS CARROLL 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 Q,dX/// gifts you '11 say to a beggar ''yes " : with heavy gifts you '11 say to a beggar " nay " .' And the way to say the lines in the play is — ' O, then I see you \\\\\ part but with light gifts ; In xveightier things you '11 say a beggar nay.'' One more sentence. " When Richard says, ' WHiat, would you have my weapon.^ little Lord ?' and you reply 'I would, tliat I might thank you as you call me,' did n'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 1 'm sure it 's wrong to pronounce it so when it comes into a sentence. It will sound much nicer if you '11 pro- nounce it so as to rhyme with ' bank.' "One more thing. ('What an impertinent old un- cle ! 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 8o LEWIS CARROLL enough. It was not so much a real pri7ice talking to his elder brother and his uncle ; it was Isa Bowman talking to people she did n't ?/iuch 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 io forget ' Isa' alto- gether, 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 Isa." X for Emsie. He was a fairly constant patron of all the London theatres, save the Gaiety and the Adelphi, which he did not like, and num- bered a good many theatrical folk among his LEWIS CARROLL 8i 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 Thome's thea- tre, and especially for the purpose of seeing Miss Violet Vanbrugh's Ophelia. He was a great admirer of both Miss Violet and Miss Irene Vanbrueh as actresses. Of Miss Thome'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. Amonor the male members of the theatrical profession he had no especial favourites, ex- cepting Mr.OToole and Mr. Richard Mans- field. He never went to a music-hall, but con- sidered 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. 82 LEWIS CARROLL Comic opera, when it was wholesome, he liked, and was a frequent visitor to the Sa- voy theatre. The good old style of Panto- mime, too, was a orreat delisfht 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 panto- mime, 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 reci::. r, he Lved ««^- THE LITTLE I'KINCES 83 84 LEWIS CARROLL correct elocution, and would take any pains to make a child perfect in a piece. First of all there is an explanatory para- -graph. " 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 the)', 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.^ Mollie. Then, near the end of the first verse — " Whereupon she '11 call her cronies " ' At this point the real child's answers begin, the three or four lines alone were written by Mr. Dodgson himself. — Ed, LEWIS CARROLL 85 — what does ''whereupon" mean? And what are cronies ? EtJicl. I think whereupon means at the same time, and cronies means her favourite playfellows. Mollie. "And invest in proud polonies." Wliat '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 HcrhtnincT. 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 86 LEWIS CARROLL many different things, but in " The Demon of the Pit " I should think it meant the leading part of the piece, and " mise " means somethincr extra orood introduced, and " tout " means to seek for applause, but " ensemble " means the whole of the parts taken together, and grit means something Q-Qod. Mollie, *' And the Goblins prostrate tum- ble." 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 givmg up, yielding. Mollie. " They have tripe as light to dream on." What does "as" mean here? and what does " to dream on " mean ? LEWIS CARROLL 87 EtJiel. Mollle, 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, Mollic, 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 88 LEWIS CARROLL famous " Looking-Glass" writing. You have to begin at the last word and read back- wards 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. " N'ov. I, 1. 891. '* 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 ///;// been have must it see you so -.grandfather my was, tJien alive was that, ' Dodgson Uncle' only the. Born was / before long was that, see you, then But. ' Dodgson Uncle for pretty thing some make I '11 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. Grand- father my for made had you Antimacassar pretty that me give to you of nice so was it, Nelly dear my." LEWIS CARROLL 89 Bo cnn ^O ^trr U: ^^a^a^ 3d CihB^ ff^^^ d^y^ytA-o^ ^LffKrt ^^t^jurt. ^i^^CLAht> ^rw^T iJUj^e^ ±Aa.. ^^afn. c^l ^-^f^ 90 LEWIS CARROLL a>\j LEWIS CARROLL 91 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 ofiven her. It is interestinor 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 erew older. o 92 LEWIS CARROLL " 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 is n'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 com- fortable 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, be- cause 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 7-ight 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 LEWIS CARROLL 93 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 cant 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." Amone the bundle of letters and MS. be- fore me, I find written on a half sheet of note-paper the followinc^ Ollendorfian dia- logue. 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 eo 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 ! " 94 LEWIS CARROLL " 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 ac- count 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 re- ceived that were of any interest or import- ance whatever he kept, putting them away in old biscuit tins, numbers of which he kept for the purpose. 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 : — •.^^i DOLLY VARDEN 95 96 LEWIS CARROLL Write Legibly. — The average temper of the hu- man 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 ? Is n't his time as valuable as yours? Years ago I used to receive let- ters from a friend — and very interesting letters too — written in one of the most atrocious hands ever invented. It generally took me about a iveek 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 ail one's friends wrote like that, life would be entirely spent in reading their letters." hi writing the last wise word, the author no doubt had some of his girl correspond- ents 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 LEWIS CARROLL 97 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 just- ified 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 g to 13, 1899 When Maggie once to Oxford came On tour as ' Booties' Baby,' She said ' I '11 see this place of fame, However dull the day be ! ' 98 LEWIS CARROLL 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 1 ' Roast, boil, and bake, For Maggie's sake ! Bring cutlets fine, For /ler to dine : Meringues so sweet, For /ler to eat — For Maggie may be Booties' 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 ? ' LEWIS CARROLL 99 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 Booties' 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. loo LEWIS CARROLL 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 did n'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 / could have a friend To do that very thing for 7ne, 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, LEWIS CARROLL loi 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 Booties' 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 Booties Baby : we Are going up and down,' I02 LEWIS CARROLL 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 // 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 Sbe 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 ! T •' A TURK' 103 I04 LEWIS CARROLL ' 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 §nay be Booties' Baby ! ' — Lewis Carroll." 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. LEWIS CARROLL 105 That ble cool room on some summer's after- noon, 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 sis- ters, 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 bie 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 sum- mer 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 io6 LEWIS CARROLL 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 drawinors. 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 o^reat success with one book than to write a sequel which should worthily succeed it. In the present case that is exactly what Lewis Car- roll did. " Throuofh the Lookins^-Glass " is every whit as popular and charming as LEWIS CARROLL 107 the older book. Lideed one depends very much upon the other, and in every child's book-shelves one sees the two masterpieces side by side. A CHARADE ^^■^t^^e'ru To ^Z/>vy ^.3- .^^ ^ ^ ^ ^- t^^ ?" ii6 LEWIS CARROLL Although he never wrote anything in the dramatic Hne, 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. 1 08-10) 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, 'go, " 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 did n'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 LEWIS CARROLL 117 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 l) 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 con- servative tendencies. He viewed with won- der 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 jnuch ' 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 stay- ing 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 ii8 LEWIS CARROLL her at dinner, and every time I spoke to her, she looked at nie 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 I 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 unfort- unate in his experience of great people, and the following letter, written when he was staying with Lord Salisbury at Hat- field House, tells delightfully of his little LEWIS CARROLL 119 royal friends, the Duchess of Albany's children : " Hatfield House, Hatfield, " Herts, June 8, '8g." *' My darling Isa, — I hope this will find you, but I haven't yet had any letter from Fiilham^ 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) : 1 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 is n'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, /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. I20 LEWIS CARROLL Now that I have made friends with a real live little Princess, I don't intend ever to speak to any more children that have n't any titles. In fact, I 'm so proud, and I hold my chin so high, that I should n't even see you if we met ! No, darlings, you must n't believe that. If I made friends with a dozefi 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 pre- tended 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. 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