53071103 isa bowman the story of lewis carroll copia

7/27/2019 53071103 Isa Bowman the Story of Lewis Carroll Copia

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PR4612B691899MAIN


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THE LIBRARYOFTHE UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIA

BEQUESTOF

ANITA D. S. BLAKE


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THE STORY OFLEWIS CARROLL

TOLD FOR YOUNG PEOPI L BYTHE REAL ALICE IN WONDERLAND

.MISS ISA BOWMAN

WITH A DIARY AND NUMEROUSFACSIMILE LETTERS WRITTEN TOMISS ISA BOWMAN andOTHERS. ALSO MANY SKETCHESAND PHOTOS BY LEWIS CARROLLAND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS -^^i-

NEW YORKE. P. BUTTON ik COMPANY

31 West Twenty-third Street1900


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Copyright, iSqgBY

E. P. DUTTON & CO.

GIFT

Ube Iftntcfterbocker Pvces, "fflcw ]i)orf5


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ILLUSTRATIONSMiss Isa Bowman (in Photogravure) FrontispieceLewis Carroll's Room in Oxford ... 9C. L. DoDGSON 13A Chinaman 17Beggar Children ...... 35St. George and the Dragon . . . -59Lewis Carroll's House at Eastbourne. . 65Miss Isa Bowman and Miss Bessie Hatton asTHE Little Princes in the Tower . . 73Isa Bowman as Duke of York . . -77Miss Isa Bowman as "Alic

(in Photogravure)The Little Princes ." Dolly Varden "" A Turk " .Facsimile of a Charade

e in Wonderland "808395103

108-109-1 10

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LEWIS CARROLLTT seems to me a very difficult task to sit

down at a desk and write "reminis-cences " of a friend who has gone from usall.

It is not easy to make an effort and to re-member all the little personalia of some oneone has loved very much, and by whom onehas been loved. And yet it is in a measureone's duty to tell the world something of theinner life of a famous man ; and Lewis Car-roll was so wonderful a personality, and sogood a man, that if my pen dragged ever soslowly, 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 stillheavy upon me, I must of necessity colourmy account with sadness. I am not in the


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2 LEWIS CARROLLordinary sense a biographer. I cannot setdown a critical estimate, a cold, dispassion-ate summing-up of a man I loved ; but Ican write of a few things that happenedwhen I was a little girl, and when he usedto say to me that I was ^' his little girl."The gracious presence of Lewis Carroll is

with us no longer. Never again will hishand hold mine, and I shall never hear hisvoice more in this world. Forever while Ilive that kindly influence will be gone frommy 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 andsweet, so tender and kind, so certain thatthere was another and more beautiful lifewaiting for us, that I know, even as if Iheard him telling it to me, that some timeI 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


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LEWIS CARROLL 3near to me, and the kindly voice is often atmy ear as it was in the old days.To have even known such a man as he

was is an inestimable boon. To have beenwith him for so long as a child, to haveknown so intimately the man who above allothers has understood childhood, is indeeda memory on which to look back withthanksgiving 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 feelthe old charm, I can still be elad that hehas kissed me and that we were friends.Little girl and grave professor ! it is astrange combination. Grave professor andlittle girl ! how curious it sounds ! yetstrange and curious as it may seem, it wasso, and the little girl, now a little girl nolonger, offers this last loving tribute to thefriend and teacher she loved so well. For-ever that voice is still ; be it mine to revivesome ancient memories of it.


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4 LEWIS CARROLLFirst, however, as I have essayed to be

some sort of a biographer, I feel that beforeI let my pen run easily over the tale of myintimate knowledge of Lewis Carroll I mustput down very shortly some facts about hislife.

The Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgsondied when he was sixty-six years old, andwhen his famous book, " Alice in Wonder-land," had been published for thirty-threeyears. He was born at Daresbury, in Che-shire, and his father was the Rev. CharlesDodgson. The first years of his life werespent at Daresbury, but afterwards the fam-ily went to live at a place called Croft, inYorkshire. He went first to a private schoolin Yorkshire and then to Rugby, where hespent years that he always remembered asvery happy ones. In 1850 he went to ChristChurch, Oxford, and from that time till theyear of his death he was inseparably con-nected with " The House," as Christ Churchcollege is generally called, from its Latin


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LEWIS CARROLL 5name " yEdes Christi," which means, hter-ally translated, the House of Christ.There he won great distinction as a

scholar of mathematics, and wrote manyabstruse and learned books, very differentfrom "Alice in Wonderland." There is atale that when the Queen had read " Alicein Wonderland " she was so pleased that sheasked for more books by the same author.Lewis Carroll was written to, and back, withthe name of Charles Dodgson on the title-page, came a number of the very dryestbooks about Algebra and Euclid that youcan imagine.

Still, even in mathematics his whimsicalfancy was sometimes suffered to peep out, andlittle crirls who learnt the rudiments of calcu-lation at his knee found the path they hadimagined so thorny set about with roses byreason of the delightful fun with which hewould turn a task Into a joy. But when thefun was over the little o-'irl would find thatshe had learnt the lesson (all unknowingly)


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6 LEWIS CARROLLjust the same. Happy little girls who hadsuch 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 hadall arithmetic lessons been like the arithmeticlessons given by Charles Dodgson to hislittle friends.As a lecturer to his grown-up pupils he

was also surprisingly lucid, and under hisdeft treatment the knottiest of problemswere quickly smoothed out and made easyfor his hearers to comprehend. *' I alwayshated mathematics at school," an ex-pupil ofhis told me a little while ago, '' but when Iwent up to Oxford I learnt from Mr. Dodg-son to look upon my mathematics as themost 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.


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LEWIS CARROLL 7From that time to the time of his death he re-mained in his college, taking no actual partin the tuition, but still enjoying the Fellow-ship that he had won in 186 1.

This is an official account, a brief sketchof an intensely interesting life. It tells littlesave that Lewis Carroll was a clever mathe-matician and a sympathetic teacher ; it shallbe my work to present him as he was froma more human point of view.

Lewis Carroll was a man of mediumheight. When I knew him his hair was asilver-grey, rather longer than it was thefashion to wear, and his eyes were a deepblue. He was clean shaven, and, as hewalked, always seemed a little unsteady inhis gait. At Oxford he was a well-knownfigure. He was a little eccentric in hisclothes. In the coldest weather he wouldnever wear an overcoat, and he had a curioushabit of always wearing, in all seasons of theyear, a pair of grey and black cotton gloves.But for the whiteness of his hair it was


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8 LEWIS CARROLLdifficult to tell his age from his face, forthere were no wrinkles on it. He had acuriously womanish face, and, in direct con-tradiction to his real character, there seemedto be little strength in it. One reads a ereatdeal about the lines that a man's life paintsin his face, and there are many people whobelieve that character is indicated by thecurves of flesh and bone. I do not, andnever shall, believe it is true, and LewisCarroll is only one of many instances tosupport my theory. He was as firm andself-contained as a man may be, but therewas little to show it in his face.

Yet you could easily discern it in the wayin which he met and talked with his friends.When he shook hands with youhe hadfirm white hands, rather largehis grip wasstrong and steadfast. Every one knows thekind of man of whom it is said " his handswere all soft and flabby when he said, ' How-do-you-do.' " Well, Lewis Carroll was nota bit like that. Every one says when he


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lo LEWIS CARROLLshook your hand the pressure of his was fullof strength, and you felt here indeed was aman to admire and to love. The expressionin his eyes was also very kind and charming.He used to look at me, when we met, in

the very tenderest, gentlest way. Of courseon an ordinary occasion I knew that his in-terested glance did not mean anything of anyextra importance. Nothing could have hap-pened since I had seen him last, yet, at thesame time, his look was always so deeplysympathetic and benevolent that one couldhardly help feeling it meant a great dealmore than the expression of the ordinaryman.He was af^icted with what I believe is

known as '' Housemaid's knee," and thismade his movements singularly jerky andabrupt. Then again he found it Impossibleto avoid stammering in his speech. Hewould, when engaged in an animated con-versation with a friend, talk quickly and wellfor a few minutes, and then suddenly and


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LEWIS CARROLL nwithout any very apparent cause would be-gin to stutter so much, that It was oftendifficult to understand him. He was veryconscious of this Impediment, and he triedhard to cure himself. For several years heread a scene from some play of Shakespeare'severy day aloud, but despite this he wasnever quite able to cure himself of the habit.Many people would have found this a greathindrance to the affairs of ordinary life, andwould have felt it deeply. Lewis Carrollwas different. His mind and life were sosimple and open that there was no room inthem for self-consciousness, and I have oftenheard him jest at his own misfortune, witha comic wonder at it.The personal characteristic that you would

notice most on meeting Lewis Carroll washis extreme shyness. With children, ofcourse, he was not nearly so reserved, butin the society of people of maturer age hewas almost old-maldlshly prim In his manner.When he knew a child well this reserve


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12 LEWIS CARROLLwould vanish completely, but it needed onlya slightly disconcerting incident to bring thecloak of shyness about him once more, andclose the lips that just before had been talk-ing so delightfully.

I shall never forget one afternoon whenwe had been walking in Christ Church mea-dows. On one side of the great open spacethe little river Cherwell runs through grovesof trees towards the I sis, where the collegeboat-races are rowed. We were going quietlyalong by the side of the " Cher," when hebegan to explain to me that the tiny streamwas a tributary, '' a baby river " he put it,of the big Thames. He talked for someminutes, explaining how rivers came downfrom hills and flowed eventually to the sea,when he suddenly met a brother Don at aturning 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 thecorner.


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C. L. DODGSON

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14 LEWIS CARROLLHe greeted him in answer to his saluta-

tion, but the incident disturbed his train ofthought, and for the rest of the walk hebecame very difficult to understand, andtalked in a nervous and preoccupied manner.One strange way in which his nervousnessaffected him was peculiarly characteristic.When, owing to the stupendous success of" Alice in Wonderland " and '' Alice Throughthe Looking-Glass," he became a celebritymany people were anxious to see him, andin some way or other to find out what man-ner of man he was. This seemed to himhorrible, and he invented a mild deceptionfor use when some autograph-hunter or curi-ous person sent him a request for his signa-ture on a photograph, or asked him somesilly question as to the writing of one of hisbooks, how long it took to write, and howmany copies had been sold. Through somethird person he always represented thatLewis Carroll the author and Mr. Dodgsonthe professor were two distinct persons, and


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LEWIS CARROLL 15that the author could not be heard of atOxford at all. On one occasion an Americanactually wrote to say that he had heard thatLewis Carroll had laid out a garden torepresent some of the scenes in "Alice inWonderland," and that he (the American)was coming right away to take photographsof it. Poor Lewis Carroll, he was in terrorof Americans for a week !Of being photographed he had a horror,

and despite the fact that he was continuallyand importunately requested to sit beforethe camera, only very few photographs ofhim are in existence. Yet he had been him-self a great amateur photographer, and hadtaken many pictures that were remarkablein their exact portraiture of the subject.

It was this exactness that he used to pridehimself on in his camera work. He alwayssaid that modern professional photographersspoilt all their pictures by touching themup absurdly to flatter the sitter. When itwas necessary for me to have some pictures


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r6 LEWIS CARROLLtaken he sent me to Mr. H. H. Cameron,whom he declared to be the only artist whodared to produce a photograph that wasexactly like its subject. This is one of thephotographs of me that Mr. Cameron took,and Lewis Carroll always declared that itwas a perfect specimen of portrait work.Many of the photographs of children inthis book are Lewis Carroll's work. MissBeatrice Hatch, to whose kindness I am in-debted for these photographs and for muchinteresting Information, writes in the StrandMagazine (April 1898) :

" My earliest recollections of Mr. Dodgson are con-nected with photography. He was very fond of this artat one time, though he had entirely given it up formany 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 notthoroughly enjoy personating a Japanese or a beggarchild, or a gipsy or an Indian ? Sometimes therewere excursions to the roof of the college, which waseasily accessible from the w^indows of the studio. Oryou might stand by your friend's side in the tinydark room and watch him while he poured the con-tents of several little strong-smelling bottles on to the


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LEWIS CARROLL 17glass picture of yourself that looked so funny with itsblack face."

A CHINAMAN

Yet, despite his love for the photograph-er's art, he hated the idea of havino- his


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i8 LEWIS CARROLLown picture taken for the benefit of a curiousworld. The shyness that made him nervousin the presence of strangers made the ideathat any one who cared to stare into a shopwindow could examine and criticise his por-trait extremely repulsive to him.

I remember that this shyness of his wasthe only occasion of anything approaching aquarrel between us.

I had an idle trick of drawing caricatureswhen I was a child, and one day when hewas writinor some letters I be^an to make apicture of him on the back of an envelope.I quite forget what the drawing was likeprobably it was an abominable libelbutsuddenly he turned round and saw what Iwas doing. He got up from his seat andturned very red, frightening me very much.Then he took my poor little drawing, andtearing it into small pieces threw it into thefire without a word. Afterwards he camesuddenly to me, and saying nothing, caughtme up in his arms and kissed me passionately.


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LEWIS CARROLL 19I was only some ten or eleven years of ageat the time, but now the incident comes backto me very clearly, and I can see it as if ithappened but yesterdaythe sudden snatch-ing of my picture, the hurried striding acrossthe room, and then the tender li^ht in hisface as he caught me up to him and kissedme.

I used to see a good deal of him at Oxford,and I was constantly in Christ Church. Hewould invite me to stay with him and findme rooms just outside the college gates,where I was put into charge of an elderlydame, whose name, if I do not foro^et, wasMrs. Buxall. I would spend long happydays with my uncle, and at nine o'clock Iwas taken over to the little house in St.Aldates and delivered into the hands of thelandlady, who put me to bed.

In the morning I was awakened by thedeep reverberations of " Great Tom " callingOxford to wake and begin the new day.Those times were very pleasant, and the


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20 LEWIS CARROLLremembrance of them lincrers with me still.Lewis Carroll at the time of which I amspeaking had two tiny turret rooms, one oneach side of his staircase in Christ Church.He always used to tell me that when I grewup and became married he would give methe two little rooms, so that if I ever dis-agreed with my husband we could each of usretire to a turret till we had made up ourquarrel !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 ofthe finest collections of musical-boxes to befound anywhere in the world. There werebig black ebony boxes with glass tops,,through which you could see all the works.There was a big box with a handle, which itwas quite hard exercise for a little girl toturn, and there must have been twenty orthirty little ones which could only play onetune. Sometimes one of the musical-boxeswould not play properly, and then I always


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LEWIS CARROLL 21got tremendously excited. Uncle used togo to a drawer in the table and produce abox of little screw-drivers and punches, andwhile I sat on his knee he would unscrewthe lid and take out the wheels to see whatwas the matter. He must have been aclever mechanist, for the result was alwaysthe sameafter a longer or shorter period themusic beean aeain. Sometimes when themusical - boxes had played all their tuneshe used to put them in the box backwards,and was as pleased as I at the comic effectof the music "standing on its head," as hephrased it.There was another and very wonderful

toy which he sometimes produced for me,and this w^as known as " The Bat." Theceilinufs of the rooms in which he lived atthe time were very high indeed, and admira-bly suited for the purposes of " The Bat."It was an ingeniously constructed toy ofgauze and wire, which actually flew aboutthe room like a bat. It was worked by a


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22 LEWIS CARROLLpiece of twisted elastic, and It could fly forabout half a minute.

I was always a little afraid of this toy be-cause it was too lifelike, but there was afearful joy in it. When the music-boxesbegan to pall he would get up from hischair and look at me with a knowing smile.I always knew what was coming even beforehe began to speak, and I used to dance upand down in tremendous anticipation.

" Isa, my darling," he would say, "onceupon a time there was some one called Bobthe Bat ! and he lived in the top left-handdrawer of the writing-table. What could hedo 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 ofits flight, and one morning, a hot summer'smorning when the window was wide open,Bob flew out into the garden and alightedin a bowl of salad which a scout was taking


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LEWIS CARROLL 23to some one's rooms. The poor fellow wasso startled by the sudden flapping apparitionthat he dropped the bowl, and it was brokeninto a thousand pieces.There ! I have written " a thousand pieces,"

and a thoughtless exas^oreration of that sortwas a thing that Lewis Carroll hated. " Athousand pieces ? " he would have said ; " youknow, Isa, that if the bowl had been brokeninto a thousand pieces they would each havebeen so tiny that you could have hardly seenthem. And if the broken pieces had beenget-at-able, he would have made me countthem as a means of impressing on my mindthe folly of needless exaggeration.

I remember how annoyed he was oncewhen, after a mornincr's sea bathinor at East-bourne, I exclaimed, " Oh, this salt water, italways 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 asstiff as a poker. "If you had said, 'as stiffas wires,' it would have been more like it, but


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24 LEWIS CARROLLeven that would have been an exaeeeration."And then, seeing that I was a httle fright-ened, he drew for me a picture of '' The Httlegirl called Isa whose hair turned into pokersbecause she was always exaggerating things."

That, and all the other pictures that hedrew for me are, I 'm sorry to say, the soleproperty of the little fishes in the IrishChannel, where a clumsy porter droppedthem as we hurried into the boat at Holy-head.

" I nearly died of laughing," was anotherexpression that he particularly disliked ; infact any form of exaggeration generallycalled from him a reproof, though he wassometimes content to make fun. For in-stance, my sisters and I had sent him " mil-lions of kisses " in a letter. Below you willfind the letter that he wrote in return, writ-ten in violet ink that he always used (dread-fully ugly, I used to think it).


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LEWIS CARROLL 29" Cii. Ch. Oxford,

" Ap. 14, 1890." My own Darling," It 's all very well for you and Nellie and Emsie towrite in millions of hugs and kisses, but please con-sider the time it would occupy your poor old veryl)usy Uncle ! Try hugging and kissing Emsie for aminute by the watch, and I don't think you'll man-age it more than 20 times a minute. ' Millions' mustmean 2 millions at least.

20)2,000,000 hugs and kisses60)100,000 minutes

12)1,666 hours6)138 days (at twelve hours a day)

23 weeks.

"I could n't go on hugging and kissing more than12 hours a day : and I would n't like to spend Sundaysthat way. So you see it would take 2j weeks of hardwork. Really, my dear child, I eanuot spare the time."Why have n't I written since my last letter?Why, how eoitld I, you silly silly child ? How couldI have written siiiee tJie 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 soas to have kissed her since the last time you did kissher. Now go back to your place, and I '11 questionyou.

" ' Have vou kissed her several times ? '"' Yes, darling Uncle.'" ' What o'clock was it when you gave her the last

kiss ?


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;o LEWIS CARROLL" ' 5 minutes past lo, Uncle.'" * Very well, now, have you kissed her since? '" ' Well Iahem ! ahem ! ahem ! (excuse me,Uncle, I 've got a bad cough). Ithinkthat 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 has n't been because I

was ///, but because I was a horrid lazy old thing,who kept putting it off from day to day, till at last Isaid to myself, 'WHO ROAR ! There's no time towrite now, because they sail on the ist of April.' ' Infact, I should n't have been a bit surprised if thisletter had been from Fulhani^ instead of Louisville.Well, I suppose you will be there by about the middleof May. But mind you don't write to me from there !Please, please^ no more horrid letters from you ! Ido hate them so ! And as for kissing them wlien Iget them, wliy, I 'd just as soon kiss kiss kiss you,you tiresome thing ! So there now !

" Thank you very much for those 2 i)hotographs I liked themhum pretty well. I can't honestlysay I thouglit them the very best I had ever seen.

" Please give my kindest regards to your mother,and 1^ of a kiss to Nellie, and -oio of ^ kiss to Emsie,and ^TiToijTiroo of ^ kiss to yourself. So, with fondestlove, I am, my darling, your loving Uncle,

" C. L. DODGSON."' This refers to my visit to America when, as a child, I played

the little Duke of York in " Richard III."


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LEWIS CARROLL 31And now, in the postscript, comes one of

the rare instances in which Lewis Carrollshowed his deep religious feeling. It runs'' I'.S.I've thought about that little prayer you

asked me to write for Nellie and Emsie. But I wouldlike, first, to have the words of the one I wrote foryou, and the words of what they nc?7J say, if they sayany. And then I will pray to our Heavenly Fatherto help me to write a prayer that will be really fit forthem to use."

Again, I had ended one of my letterswith "all join me in lufs and kisses." Itwas a letter written when I was away fromhome and alone, and I had put the usualending thoughtlessly and in haste, for therewas no one that I knew in all that town whocould have joined me in my messages tohim. He answered me as follows :

" 7 LusHiNGTON Road, Eastbourne,Aug. 30, go.

" Oh, you naughty, naughty, bad wicked little girl !You forgot to ])ut a stamp on your letter, and yourpoor old uncle had to pay TWOPENCE! His lastTwopence ! Think of that. I shall punish you se-verely for this when once I get you here. So tremble 1Do you hear ? Be good enough to tremble !


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32 LEWIS CARROLL" I 've only time for one question to-day. Who in

the world are the ' all ' that join you in ' Lufs andkisses.' Were n't you fancying you were at home, andsending messages (as people constantly do) from Nellieand Emsie without their having given any ? It is n'ta good plan that sending messages people have n'tgiven. I don't mean it 's in the least iniU'uihfnl^ be-cause everybody knows how commonly they are sentwithout having been given ; but it lessens the pleasureof receiving the messages. My sisters write to me'with best love from all.' I know it isn't true ; so Idon't value it much. The other day, the husband ofone of my 'child-friends' (who always writes 'yourloving ') wrote to me and ended with ' Ethel joins mein kindest regards.' In my answer I said (of coursein fun) ' I am not going to send Ethel kindest re-gards, so I won't send her any message at all' Thenshe wrote to say she didn't even know he was writ-ing ! ' Of course I would have sent best love,' andshe added that she had given her husband a piece ofher mind ! Poor husband !

" Your always loving uncle,"C. L. D."

These letters are written in Lewis Car-roll's ordinary handwriting, not a particularlylegible one. When, however, he was writ-ing for the press no characters could havebeen more clearly and distinctly formed thanhis. Throughout his life he always made it


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LEWIS CARROLL 33his care to give as little trouble as possibleto other people. " Why should the printershave to work overtime because my lettersare ill-formed and my words run into eachother ? " he once said, when a friend remon-strated with him because he took such painswith the writing of his " copy." As a speci-men of his careful penmanship the diary thathe wrote for me, which is reproduced inthis book in facsimile, is an admirableexample.They were happy days, those days in Ox-

ford, spent with the most fascinating com-panion that a child could have. In ourwalks about the old town, in our visits tocathedral or chapel or hall, in our visits tohis friends he was an ideal companion, butI think I was almost happiest when we cameback to his rooms and had tea alone ; whenthe fire-glow (it was always winter when Istayed in Oxford) threw fantastic shadowsabout the quaint room, and the thoughts ofthe prosiest of people must have wandered

3


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34 LEWIS CARROLLa little into fancy-land. The shifting fire-light seemed to almost aetherealise thatkindly face, and as the wonderful stories fellfrom his lips, and his eyes lighted on mewith the sweetest smile that ever a manwore, I was conscious of a love and rever-ence for Charles Dods^son that becamenearly an adoration.

It was almost pain when the lights wereturned up and we came back to everydaylife and tea.He was very particular about his tea,which he always made himself, and in order

that it should draw properly he would walkabout the room swincrine the tea-pot fromside to side for exactly ten minutes. Theidea of the grave professor promenading hisbook-lined study and carefully weaving a tea-pot to and fro may seem ridiculous, but allthe minutia of life received an extremeattention at his hands, and after the firstsurprise one came quickly to realise theconvenience that his carefulness ensured.


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LEWIS CARROLL 35Before starting on a railway journey, for

BEGGAR CHILDREN

instance (and how delightful were railwayjourneys in the company of Lewis Carroll),


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36 LEWIS CARROLLhe used to map out exactly every minute ofthe time that we were to take on the way.The details of the journey completed, hewould exactly calculate the amount of moneythat must be spent, and, in different partitionsof the two purses that he carried, arrangethe various sums that would be necessaryfor cabs, porters, newspapers, refreshments,and the other expenses of a journey. Itwas wonderful how much trouble he savedhimself en route by thus making ready be-forehand. Lewis Carroll was never drivenhalf frantic on a station platform because hehad to change a sovereign to buy a pennypaper while the train was on the verge ofstarting. With him journeys were alwayscomfortable.Of the joys that waited on a little girl who

stayed with Lewis Carroll at his Oxfordhome I can crive no better idea than thatfurnished by the diary that follows, whichhe wrote for me, bit by bit, during theevenings of one of my stays at Oxford.


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in fr-ordr h)tre, rLcdL,CLT^cL ô-nxekou) tê^jaUtl u^t^-Ue. joôtc^r^ l^klrud- ,So Hioct:


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:>S LEWIS CARROLLyou. coJLJL^ tell y^ka^re. iiCv vuLtL^kcxS,foot ^J- tk^^Gll^ ,'îsire^ âe a. stfcum-p^kdr

~Tr-Q^?yierLclou.-^ fieuahJr-tfi^ Trails' ^mjî^ [^ ot

fiCK u^tîs oir p a.rtr of- M^ rn^cA^re^^The re- Ua^s'na. A 7U)vt; i'>^


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LEWIS CARROLL 39

H-t "Îtt^^ IôrA- PaicH;tle'roy. Loo- vJ0ia5 ô^n^ â^'P as/eeo, cLTCj^cLrtcKnrMio^zrlQzr^sAe- ^^"^^ little^ lôrcL 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-Â/ OUî


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40 LEWIS CARROLL

ne.a.Tly -fou-r f-e.et kc^jt Qso ûf Usa, fiatrUKnTdilu to" 6 Loop at" all ^ 'tf qq ^>^^^ UT^ ^^^ptopie. ccxXV Tom, Clticx.Ji']^ ~Yû. 'sk:SaU alvOcLyc^Qaddra^Û ; d' ttl^Î^ /-ee??^ ^^^"^ to 'takec^^xi 'TutiCQ, Tûrtr L^lr cLo e^n^6' llUe. Joeu)^&CoulleL naime- On^t/ieor ^y ~hCh.ru=,-t Cktcy,,'tAeij ^^^


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LEWIS CARROLL 41

TTw. /re ^ are ^k^L- ifrz oLccken , 4o. L%A^^tcAea LS clrod.-tkt oUest pari- ^TLhaâ Hre, ~jra.t^ ^f^S^ _f-ôua k ^ ToastforX^ le^S of ytiLCtt^TL. at- ^^^^ciêA^.M^ Acs Ur.U ^..er^l'^'^sof Qui. BodULaix^X^^LiruT^ ^ u^ ^rociA'îrii^t^ClTicL^CLS Ck. l/cundL 'ôiS Jusir CjOLn^ iy qP ''

a-rL.(L VOrino^LrLa Ktr y-ta.n.ds^ _ Tyie 'BandteA ~Mi^yy^ in/^ ^^ qcxro(-Q.ns of "Vv^^/f^,;^


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42 LEWIS CARROLLCl School- tr&dL aoinc^ on. ^ho^^re^ iô^Sj^ irst TvLOTck t7iA Tw tee To^. nd, ~i^ Q(Xr4emUxaTL Aav'vl;^ Cl ph-otoc^Tckp/i don-t of- '^711, alltn. (X ^^W "^fei- (LpjroTrLLG^ of- "ûticIi,-Ur^ ""IBraaJL 'U/atkl IrL~tA^ ev-^yx.Lnj SiejfoLo^'xôL cd "" :F^vtrSL''^tUL X-So^ hal Lo^'^h^rc sJiQ. vênt to liî . and i.Teain.-el sJea, duck of WtUx^^û.j(^^,

hhr- 7êJiiCLna -Ver\j CLTru-oSlyj^) vOQ-n.trIaj'uPl ^-e^ ./\.A,jvr. (^voko would cô u)Llt:Jie?-^ tôiiJ^ sAe 'ôld jLcnu o\^r- anlovcrs/lI lôutd rat/i&r^ leaLona)i3 ^^J^rde7i6yoht.re. -tko-y dt^J-ît- See Me ewa.?L(y>^^


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LEWIS CARROLL 43

So sAe /outcK lo^ o^^cn^.sAt i.Utkno^

(ZolLeae, C tru.'d.lr Cv^ l^S^Sj âi\J_ dclmcTed,tk^ â.ro)-Q^ /awn. ^ KJ/(^re -jnoT^. 'tAô^ IS'OSiLv-e,r^ \2reL nôir w) alk l^'ua ab-otLtr.

CiolLeê. C lû.d^ u^ 1(9/0) - ank_l^Z^^T^û) MuênTir.^ U)/iere. X^^ cÛiibc lost /i.Qr-KtcLtt to a, chcx.'no'Li-i'x^ îjlffeJi ^-dtLUol^thai "^JrtiUct oi^)xr^ f-roni. u alass CaS^,

Â-e. ^'n.oft Carious tkcn^ tAeu ^^W ih er^


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44 LEWIS CARROLL-tiaJr Looks -e-Kudlx^ lik^c^ vo'Jirereil ê^f^

tJCrou-^k ttei yoalC^ one o-f- t^-eforst^êr^

of CAe. old. Ci(rL)"âils rwrLôu/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^~tfre 'f'lo\^jers^

CLn\j Aon&yj L'i\,'tfiQ7rL.- Omiu sUces o-f


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LEWIS CARROLL 45

G'Tz, SckLurdoAj Tsa. na.(L a.M'uj^Ld

v_e2lM. cd.^//^ cccLt- L nstnr um e-nt ~iop lay ^0-5 T-)OLL (mL Aav^ 2o" tu.-r'n^ ^ X^^ndte Toauoicxifid raund^ : So sfi^di^^ llr nxc eLj SYaxJupjuctr CL ioTL^ jruace, oj-poufi-er uk.^ a^z^ otgoes '^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 /t


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46 LEWIS CARROLLTAe?i. êy ^^-^ uiTOLLo.k, 'the. SoLo^TLtcal

CâTcLe/yiS , iru.iL't' in tJre^ 'y-e.a.-r ?ô^ i me. Corntrs o-f- ôc^r^ -mou.tjLfor^ôu.^

/lab Ol f^rett^ \^(xik clL round tt] circhecL oveiÛ)itfl 'tries ' ^nct -lAereJ^Cj yiêt a.lacL^ "fronx^/l^jY^vLTrica^'^ (KS ^he told, tjievr^, vdjô u)and:eZ td^^^^ -tte iô^y if "Ad


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LEWIS CARROLL 47oaw her no ?nore - o^lu tAeu kearcL AtryoAa haJL A^j)eneJL -^ Aer/Ô.ftaJ^ OxfonL, and Called 07x a. tc^d. Called-Mrs J-e.cLii^j (xncL /le-r Ic-ttte^ QJâyncL-Iku-A-ier^calleA ''Nbel^l l/eccLcL5e 5/5^ a^ as- Irvm^ an^Christ lo^c^s -^-t'-

Ghe, 'â.S goc7i^ Tou.ri(L ~NCcKGcLo^LerL J^TeajjouJ

yjixs ^ trLL-ffalo- siCtcn^ ^ df{h.t^ of^yerjtre.e^ kanctirm her a^^5 of-~teoi. olS she^


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48 LEWIS CARROLL''tko. C.UJX.S u^5 cde-dioYjTi ^ So tkodriê tlk.pjDu.recL ckU over Aer heaJL a.n.Ji 'To^ dovon^

To Sir. TôjnTxjs ch-LLTcJx^^ Ci^K iah. 'S'^ree^bTtl torVLio^ fionê y ^^^-n-'i^ street' ^nle-y-t"to tTte 07i. v^Kere^-tko^ kaJiôaixJL CL-fuKed^93)~^^^y /^'^'^^ ^ f-^xecK ccut CL haor-Itttk k'JTeTu^~ô[tkal ût ou uts keaJL-ifiTOiiy^ the, l/-ci^T o-^ ifAe ceiiar- \^^nJji-sAj^

cdr trCo^ ntyCt dôr^ h-iit Zê ma-cX- SacJi iô,ce^^cL-r- A) (lS Titîr^ -iivJr Ko use. ^ aTtdj Ire-forejâ-Ji il7ifLX^cL its KeoJ! tîn^r fô?n,i,ts rtack or J^rovi^tKe, t-ctrS ^ c^hA haX oone.IrhSii^. ^^ tkoLco^hL the, oîvc?7v^ls ct^this CiM^ kcLve. o^c^rLoos i/Jo^ ^/ /'^ ^!15

-'' ^he-n tKo-j ^^nZ âcA. ^ dL CLkô^nlioo'h^d cct a^tot of- cItzS^CS, voX.


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LEWIS CARROLL 49

^rt^pheX. Some o-f tAe^ Presses Aal u-eervu 5 eX ^^ ^^ ^1"^ 7^^ ^ 7n^5 aZ^ 2) râ ry -X f(3;??ei.^;er^ ^^^/ ^ ^r(f55 tyo [teaoar- ckilJireoi, ui:Some Acid Irec')^ êYj ^rrtcx^ni/ cce?tir onct^lujth)ere. (AtaT7xo^ itLtt^ oil. cLnL sAaU^.Tcdk^nc6-f

otL cLresses^ t/iere ls one. Cq [[eoe. ck Ox.-J^rd. So oicL -tha^t-otis n-ot kôvOr^/oy-^ruo i^-^^ 'twere. Say Ur w'CLS iruiUr m^yê^-irkcin. 1000 years 0-^5 . ^-h.cL ^ ^yojie^'tfieySay 'thU ,~i'Ae êojile kiAo live. LPv^ôtêy-^YVKô^t resfiedrf^y ^^^ tAe^ vo,-nJc

'~V/ie. ^^"1^ c/ojy ^ lSa_ SavJ cl. ^t^ruû-Strook

^ of pietliYêS o>-f Qôstl -Xf xôll loo/


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50 LEWIS CARROLLcex^Â^ - Â^n, 'd~ is ^reen Lrvtk& u-aokît CvS p,lrxJc ^n. tAo^ c e itCn^ .

Xn^ ^^ ^ri'^dlle o-f-'Pie. cLa.uû.s olSllU^w ds ^r^p-LleTr- i^/iaTv, tL5uLal, ^ke-re^ vOae ^dusk of^ê^rinô^LLe.6 " ^Zv(ci is /ircnouL^'Lcei.iâJr Âe \Aj6ulcL /iTeW^

Crcfn^^'^des" ^^ ^ ^^ of- ^^ garde?x.utC not T6a.l ^ dis ^ o'lxt' alL cLono. 6x (me,pieci^ : ancL-tAe^ cô uXl-^lr op.e7v'tkemê-\ê7uCf- ô^^ knocked (xU- Aay .Xs^-ôuÂit-Uem(X. nUe eraile- '^'h.nu.


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LEWIS CARROLL 51

lAjiPh'ireas cml daer^ ' 'IraiyDc.y^/ci!' o-f^ LL7VS : 'tPiat: L^ ^ ^-recorrouus o^


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52 LEWIS CARROLL

Af-t-tr cLinner-^ J,^cu j6t~ SomeCr-oaiu or-otker C^l^ ^^ ^^"^ Sure y^ko lIt iA)a&) to-:îyLisk~t/vL6 story for k^r. ^hen^ ^/le uJt7ittkerriUUe of Oxford^ loctk hrjâeiâsiY Uie. cjrouTii OLnd ka7-Aeî ktrtêeyx^tfiein>JtS of ^ Cellar- UJ inio vo ^ ux.ouô-rf; \j:finc/i -ialÛa^^ Tken 5he drea?7ie/t{e^r-trauv cc^me Icon, dnd iê fieo,^ ^QCO. k^ ^^ ^;^c.7ê / "Bui sAe crUlOaf: 'Ok, ru^-t c^ciuz ^ 1-6 uj^Û /^ tol(lTQ.a.lful i^ -âve TYLy v cSut all OV^T-smllei. c}k. her steep^ a 7^1. Sa^ 'hTell,do T/ou. Atlom^j (xf'ter cîL , 1 tfiLTuk Xy\)ou2An,lr yYiL7i,iL do v-f-ry ynLtcft. cf J-did fiixve tlr (xll over (xaain,!''^

XjQv^Cs Cajtrotl

T.-HTE ENt>


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LEWIS CARROLL 53This diary, and what I have written before,

show how I, as a Httle girl, knew LewisCarroll 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 someyoung man in whose life he took an interest.

Mr. Arthur Girdlestone is able to bearwitness to this, and he has given me anaccount of an evening that he once spentwith Lewis Carroll, which I reproducehere from notes made durino; our con-versation.

Mr. Girdlestone, then an undergraduateat New College, had on one occasion to callon Lewis Carroll at his rooms in Tom Quad.At the time of which I am speaking LewisCarroll 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 wasalmost a recluse, and beyond dining in Hallsaw hardly any one. Miss Beatrice Hatch,


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54 LEWIS CARROLLone of his "girl friends," writes apropos ofhis hermit-Hke sechision :

"If you were very anxious to get him tocome to your house on any particular day,the only chance was not to invite him, butonly to inform him that you would be athome. Otherwise he would say, ' As youhave invited me I cannot come, for I havemade a rule to decline all invitations ; butI will come the next day.' In former yearshe would sometimes consent to eo to a' party ' if he was quite sure he was npt tobe 'shown off' or introduced to any one asthe author of 'Alice.' I must again quotefrom a note of his in answer to an invitationto tea : ' What an awful proposition ! Todrink tea from four to six would tax theconstitution even of a hardened tea drinker !For me, who hardly ever touch it, it wouldprobably be fatal.' "

All through the University, except in anextremely limited circle, Lewis Carroll wasregarded as a person who lived very much


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LEWIS CARROLL 55by himself. "When," Mr. Girdlestone saidto me, " I went to see him on quite a shghtacquaintance, I confess it was with someshght feehng of trepidation. However Ihad to go on some business, and accord-ingly I knocked at his door about 8.30 onewinter'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, andmany of them tied up with tape. The lampthrew his face Into sharp relief as he greetedme.l My business was soon over, and I wasabout to go away, when he asked me If Iwould have a o^lass of wine and sit with himfor a little.

" The night outside was very cold, andthe fire was bright and inviting, and I satdown. He began to talk to me of ordinarysubjects, of the things a man might do atOxford, of the place itself, and the affectionin which he held It. He talked quietly,and In a rather tired voice. Durlnor our


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56 LEWIS CARROLLconversation nw eye fell upon a photographof a little girlievidently from the freshnessof its appearance but newly takenwhich wasresting upon the ledge of a reading-stand atmy elbow. It was the picture of a tinychild, very pretty, and I picked it up tolook at it. Ij

''' That is the baby of a girl friend of

mine,' he said, and then, with an absolutechange of voice, ' there is something verystrange about very young children, some-thing I cannot understand.' I asked himin what way, and he explained at somelength. He was far less at his ease thanwhen talking trivialities, and he occasionallystammered and sometimes hesitated for aword. / I cannot remember all he said, butsome of his remarks still remain with me.)He said that in the company of very littlechildren his" brain enjoyed a rest which wasstartlingly recuperative. \If he had beenworking^ too hard or had tired his brain inany way,] to play with children was like an


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LEWIS CARROLL 57actual material tonic to his whole system,([understood hini to say that the effect wasalmost physical [)"He said that he found it much easier to

understand children, to get his mind intocorrespondence with their minds when hewas fatigued with other work. /Personally,I did not understand little children, andthey 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 Iasked him that, he sat down suddenly.'They are three-fourths of my life,' he said.i^l cannot understand how any one could bebored by little children. I think when youare older you will come to see this I hopeyou '11 come to see it. 'J

" After that he changed the subject oncemore, and became again the mathemati-ciana little formal, and rather weary."

Mr. Girdlestone probably had a uniqueexperience, for it was but rarely that Mr.


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58 LEWIS CARROLLDodgson so far unburdened himself to acomparative stranger, and what was evenworse, to a " grown-up stranger."Now I have given you two different

phases of Lewis Carroll at OxfordLewisCarroll as the little girl's companion, andLewis Carroll sitting by the fireside tellingsomething of his inner self to a young man.I am going on to talk about my life withhim at Eastbourne, where I used, year byyear, to stay with him at his house in Lush-inorton Road.He was very fond of Eastbourne, and itwas from that place that I received the mostcharming letters that he wrote me. Hereis one, and I could hardly say how manytimes I have taken this delio^htful letter fromits 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 (tenfeet 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


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6o LEWIS CARROLLyou to a very mild punishmentonly one year's im-prisonment. If you '11 just tell the Fulham policemanabout it, he '11 manage all the rest for you, and he '11fit you with a nice pair of handcuffs, and lock you upin a nice cosy dark cell, and feed you on nice drybread, and delicious cold water.

*' But how badly you do si)ell 'your words ! I loasso puzzled about the 'sacks full of love and basketsfull of kisses ! ' But at last I made out why, of course,you meant ' a sack full oi gloves, and a basket full ofkittens !' I'lien 1 understood what you were sendingme. And just then Mrs. Dyer came to tell me a largesack and a basket had come. 'J'here was such a miaw-ing in the house, as if all the cats in Eastbourne hadcome 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 thebasket.'

Dear me ! That makes 1000 gloves ! four timesas many gloves as kittens ! It 's very kind of Maggie,but why did she send so many gloves ? for I haven'tgot 1000 Jiaiids, you know, Mrs. Dyer.'

" And Mrs. Dyer said, ' No, indeed, you 're 998hands 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 theparish schoolthe girl's school, you knowand Isaid to the mistress, ' How many little girls are thereat school to-day ?

Exactly 250, sir.'


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LEWIS CARROLL 6iH ( 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 littlekitten into her hands ! Oh, what joy there was ! Thelittle girls went all dancing home, nursing their kittens,and the whole air was full of purring ! Then, thenext morning, I went to the school, before it opened,to ask the little girls how the kittens had behaved inthe night. And they all arrived sobbing and crying,and their faces and hands were all covered withscratches, and they had the kittens wrapped up intheir pinafores to keep them from scratching anymore. And they sobbed out, ' The kittens have beenscratching us all night, all the night. ''

" So then I said to myself, ' What a nice little girlMaggie 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, ' Nevermind, 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 youshall see !

" So, in the evening, when the little girls came run-ning out, with the kittens still wrapped up in theirpinafores, there was I, at the door, with a big sack !And, as each little girl came out, I just popped intoher hand two pairs of gloves ! And each little girlunrolled her pinafore and took out an angry littlekitten, spitting and snarling, with its claws stickingout like a hedgehog. But it had n't time to scratcli.


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62 LEWIS CARROLLfor, in one moment, it found all its four claws poppedinto nice soft warm gloves ! And then the kittens gotquite sweet-tempered and gentle, and began purringagain !

" So the little girls went dancing home again, andthe next morning they came dancing back to school.The scratches were all healed, and they told me' The kittens have been good ! ' And, when anykitten wants to catch a mouse, it just takes off one ofits gloves ; and if it wants to catch two mice, it takesoff two gloves ; and if it wants to catch three mice, ittakes off three gloves ; and if it wants to Q,dX


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LEWIS CARROLL 63the absolute comprehension of a child's in-tellect, the quickness with which the writeremploys the slightest incident or thing thatwould be likely to please a little girl, issimply wonderful. I shall never forget howthe letter charmed and delighted my sisterMaggie and myself. We called it " Theglove and kitten letter," and as I look at thetremulous handwriting which is lying by myside, it all comes back to me very vividlylikethe sound of forcrotten finufers on the latchto some lonely fireside watcher, when thewind is wailinor round the house with awilder inner note than it has in the daytime.At Eastbourne I was happier even with

Lewis Carroll than I was at Oxford. Weseemed more free, and there was the air ofholiday over it all. Every day of my stay atthe house in Lushington Road was a perfectdream of delip^ht.

There was one regular and fixed routinewhich hardly ever varied, and which I cameto know by heart ; and I will write an


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64 LEWIS CARROLLaccount of It here, and ask any little girl whoreads it, if she ever had such a splendidtime in her life.To begin with, we used to get up very

early indeed. Our bedroom doors facedeach other at the top of the staircase. WhenI came out of mine I always knew if I mightgo into his room or not by his signal. If,when I came Into the passage, I found thata newspaper had been put under the door,then I knew I might go in at once ; but Ifthere was no newspaper, then I had to waittill it appeared. I used to sit down on thetop stair as quiet as a mouse, watching forthe paper to come under the door, when Iwould rush in almost before uncle had timeto get out of the way. This was always thefirst pleasure and excitement of the day.Then we used to go downstairs to break-fast, after which we always read a chapterout of the Bible. So that I should rememberit, I always had to tell it to him afterwardsas a story of my own.


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LEWIS CARROLL S HOUSE AT EASTHOUKNE

65


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66 LEWIS CARROLL" Now then, Isa dearest," he would say,

"tell me a story, and mind you begin with' once upon a time.' A story which doesnot begin with ' once upon a time ' can'tpossibly be a good story. It 's most im-portant."

When I had told my story it was time togo out.I was learnlnof swimmincr at the Dev^on-

shire Park baths, and we always had a bar-gain together. He would never allow me togo to the swimming-bathwhich I revelledinuntil I had promised him faithfully thatI would go afterwards to the dentist's.He had great ideas upon the importance

of a regular and almost daily visit to thedentist. He himself went to a dentist as hewould have gone to a hairdresser's, and heinsisted that all the little girls he knewshould go too. The precaution soundsstranore, and one mio^ht be inclined to thinkthat Lewis Carroll carried it to an unneces-sary length ; but I can only bear personal


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LEWIS CARROLL 67witness to the fact that I have firm strongteeth, and have never had a toothache in myHfe. I beheve I owe this entirely to thosedally visits to the Eastbourne dentist.Soon after this It was time for lunch, and

we both went back hand-In-hand to therooms In Lushlngton Road. Lewis Carrollnever had a proper lunch, a fact which al-ways used to puzzle me tremendously.

I could not understand how a ble erown-up man could live on a glass of sherry anda biscuit at dinner time. It seemed such apity when there was lots of mutton and rlce-puddlng that he should not have any. Ialways used to ask him, " Are n't you hun-gry, uncle, even to-day ? "

After lunch I used to have a lesson Inbackgammon, a game of which he was pass-ionately fond, and of which he could neverhave enough. Then came what to me wasthe ereat trial of the dav. I am afraid Iwas a very lazy little girl In those days, andI know I hated walking far. The trial was.


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68 LEWIS CARROLLthat we should walk to the top of BeachyHead every afternoon. I used to like It verymuch when I got there, but the walk wasirksome. Lewis Carroll believed very muchin a great amount of exercise, and said oneshould always go to bed physically weariedwith the exercise of the day. Accordinglythere was no way out of it, and every after-noon I had to walk to the top of BeachyHead. He was very good and kind. Hewould invent all sorts of new orames to be-guile the tedium of the way. One very curi-ous and strange trait in his character wasshown on these walks. I used to be veryfond of flowers and of animals also. A prettydog or a hedge of honeysuckle were alwayspleasant events upon a walk to me. Andyet he himself cared for neither flowers noranimals. Tender and kind as he was, sim-ple and unassuming in all his tastes, yet hedid not like flowers ! I confess that evennow I find it hard to understand. He knewchildren so thoroughly and wellperhaps


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LEWIS CARROLL 69better than any one elsethat it is all thestranger that he did not care for things thatgenerally attract them so much. However,be that as it may, the fact remained. WhenI was in raptures over a poppy or a dogrose,he would try hard to be as interested as Iwas, but even to my childish eyes it was anobvious effort, and he would always ratherinvent some new game for us to play at.Once, and once only, I remember him tohave taken an interest in a flower, and thatwas because of the folic-lore that was at-tached to it, and not because of the beautyof the flower itself.We used to walk into the country thatstretched, in beautiful natural avenues oftrees, inland from Eastbourne. One daywhile we sat under a ereat tree, and the humof the myriad insect life rivalled the murmurof the far-away waves, he took a foxglovefrom the heap that lay in my lap and toldme the story of how they came by theirname ; how, in the old days, when, all over


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70 LEWIS CARROLLEngland, there were great forests, like theforest of Arden that Shakespeare loved, thepixies, the " little folks," used to wander atnight in the glades, like Titania, and Oberon,and Puck, and because they took great pridein their dainty hands they made themselvesgloves out of the flowers. So the particularflower that the " little folks " used came tobe called " folks' gloves." Then, becausethe country people were rough and clumsyin their talk, the name was shortened into" Fox-gloves," the name that every one usesnow.When I got very tired we used to sit

down upon the grass, and he used to showme the most wonderful things made out ofhis handkerchief. Every one when a childhas, I suppose, seen the trick in whicha handkerchief is rolled up to look like amouse, and then made to jump about by amovement of the hand. He did this betterthan any one I ever saw, and the trick wasa never-failing joy. By a sort of consent


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LEWIS CARROLL 71between us the handkerchief trick was keptespecially for the walk to Beachy Head,when, about half-way, I was a little tiredand wanted to rest. When we actually gotto the Head there was tea waiting In thecoastguard's cottage. He always said I atefar too much, and he would never allow memore than one rock cake and a cup of tea.This was an invariable rule, and much as Iwished for it, I was never allowed to havemore than one rock cake.

It was in the coastofuard's house or onthe orrass outside that I heard most of hisstories. Sometimes he would make ex-cursions into the realms of pure romance,where there were scaly dragons and strangebeasts that sat up and talked. In all thesestories there was always an adventure In aforest, and the great scene of each tale al-ways took place in a wood. The consum-mation of a story was always heralded bythe phrase, " The children now came to adeep dark wood." When I heard that


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72 LEWIS CARROLLsentence, which was always spoken veryslowly and with a solemn dropping of thevoice, I always knew that the really excitingpart was coming. I used to nestle a littlenearer to him, and he used to hold me a lit-tle 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 eave me accountsof adventures which had happened to him.There was one particularly thrilling story ofhow he was lost on Beachy Head in a seafog, and had to find his way home by meansof boulders. This was the more interestingbecause we were on the actual scene of thedisaster, and to be there stimulated theimagination.The summer afternoons on the great head-

land were very sweet and peaceful. I havenever met a man so sensible to the influ-ences of Nature as Lewis Carroll. Whenthe sunset was very beautiful he was oftenaffected by the sight. The widespread


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MISS ISA BOWMAN AND MISS BESSIE HATTON AS THELITTLE PRINCES IN THE TOWER

73


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74 LEWIS CARROLLwrinkled sea below, in the mellow melan-choly light of the afternoon, seemed to fitin with his temperament. I have still amental picture that I can recall of him onthe cliff. Just as the sun was setting, and acool breeze whispered round us, he wouldtake off his hat and let the wind play withhis hair, and he would look out to sea.Once I saw tears in his eyes, and when weturned to go he gripped my hand muchtighter than usual.We generally got back to dinner aboutseven or earlier. He would never let me

change my frock for the meal, even if wewere oroino- to a concert or theatre after-wards. He had a curious theory that achild should not change her clothes twice inone day. He himself made no alteration inhis dress at dinner time, nor would he per-mit me to do so. Yet he was not by anymeans an untidy or slovenly man. He hadmany little fads in dress, but his great hor-ror and abomination was hieh-heeled shoes


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LEWIS CARROLL /owith pointed toes. No words were strongenough, he thought, to describe such mon-strous things.

Lewis Carroll was a deeply religious man,and on Sundays at Eastbourne we alwayswent twice to church. Yet he held that nochild should be forced into church-iJ^oinofairainst its will. Such a state of mind in achild, he said, needed most careful treat-ment, and the very worst thing to do was tomake attendance at the services compulsory.Another habit of his, which must, I feelsure, sound rather dreadful to many, wasthat, should the sermon prove beyond mycomprehension, he would give me a littlebook to read ; it was better far, he main-tained, to read, than to stare idly about thechurch. When the rest of the conorreo-ationrose at the entrance of the choir he kept hisseat. He argued that risin^r to one's feet atsuch a time tended to make the choir-boysconceited. I think he was quite right.He kept no special books for Sunday


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76 LEWIS CARROLLreading, for he was most emphatically ofopinion that anythincr tending to make Sun-day a day dreaded by a child should be studi-ously avoided. He did not like me to sewon Sunday unless it was absolutely necessary.One would have hardly expected that a

man of so reserved a nature as Lewis Carrollwould have taken much interest in thestage. Yet he was devoted to the theatre,and one of the commonest of the treatsthat he eave his little ofirl friends was toorganise a party for the play. As a criticof acting he was naive and outspoken, andnever hesitated to find fault if he thouo^ht itjustifiable. The following letter that hewrote to me criticising my acting in " Rich-ard in." when I was playing with RichardMansfield, is one of the most interesting thatI ever received from him. Althoucrh it waswritten for a child to understand and profitby, and moreover written in the simplestpossible way, it yet even now strikes me asa trenchant and valuable piece of criticism.


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i ^t'

ISA BOWMAN AS DUKE OF YORK

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y^ LEWIS CARROLL" Ch. Ch. Oxford,

''Ap. 4, '89." My Lord Duke,The photographs, which YourGrace did me the honour of sending arrived safely ;

and I can assure your Royal Highness that I am veryglad to have them, and like them very much, particu-larly the large head of your late Royal Uncle's littlelittle son. I do not wonder that your excellent UncleRichard should say ' off with his head ! ' as a hint tothe photographer to print it off. Would your High-ness like me to go on calling you the Duke of York,or shall I say ' my own own darling Isa ?' Which doyou like best ?"Now I'm going to find fault with my pet abouther acting. What 's the good of an old Uncle likeme except to find fault ?" You do the meeting with the Prince of Walesvery nicely and lovingly ; and, in teasing your Unclefor his dagger and his sword, you are very sweet andplayful and ' but that's not finding fault ! ' Isa saysto herself. Is n't it ? Well, I '11 try again. Did n'tI hear you say ' In weightier things you '11 say a Z^^-^'--s^ar nay,' leaning on the word ' beggar ' ? If so, itwas a mistake. My rule for knowing which word tolean on is the word that tells you something nni\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 would n't say' then I bought a bag of pears.' The ^ bag ' is nothingnew, because it was a bag in the first part of tlie sen-tence. But \\\Q pears are new, and different from the


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LEWIS CARROLL 79apples. So you would say, ' then I bought a bag ofpears'

" Do you understand that, my pet ? "*' Now what you say to Richard amounts to this,' With light gifts you '11 say to a beggar " yes " : withheavy gifts you '11 say to a beggar " nay." ' Thewords * you '11 say to a beggar ' are the same both times ;so you must n't lean on any of those words. But' light ' is different from ' heavy,' and ' yes ' is differentfrom ' nay.' So the way to say the sentence would be' with //>/// gifts you '11 say to a beggar ''yes " : withheavy gifts you '11 say to a beggar " nay " .' And theway 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 Imight thank you as you call me,' did n't I hear youpronounce ' thank ' as if it were spelt with an ' e ' ? Iknow it's very common (I often do it myself) to say' thenk you ! ' as an exclamation by itself. I supposeit's an odd way of pronouncing the word. But 1 'msure it 's wrong to pronounce it so when it comes intoa 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 actedAlice. You seemed to me not to forgot yourself


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8o LEWIS CARROLLenough. It was not so much a real pri7ice talking tohis elder brother and his uncle ; it was Isa Bowmantalking to people she did n't ?/iuch care about, for anaudience to listen to I don't mean it was that allthrough, but sometimes you were artificial. Now don'tbe jealous of Miss Hatton, when I say she was sweetlynatural. She looked and spoke like a real Prince ofWales. And she didn't seem to know that there wasany audience. If you are ever to be a good actress (asI hope you will), you must learn io forget ' Isa' alto-gether, and be the character you are playing. Try tothink ' This is really the Prince of Wales. I 'm hislittle brother, and I 'm very glad to meet him, and Ilove 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 withme for saying what I fancy might make your actingbetter !

" 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 theLondon theatres, save the Gaiety and theAdelphi, which he did not like, and num-bered a good many theatrical folk among his


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LEWIS CARROLL 8iacquaintances. Miss Ellen Terry was oneof his greatest friends. Once I rememberwe made an expedition from Eastbourne toMargate to visit Miss Sarah Thome's thea-tre, and especially for the purpose of seeingMiss Violet Vanbrugh's Ophelia. He wasa great admirer of both Miss Violet andMiss Irene Vanbrueh as actresses. OfMiss Thome's school of acting, too, he hadthe highest opinion, and it was his oftenexpressed wish that all intending playerscould have so excellent a course of tuition.Amonor the male members of the theatricalprofession 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 mightbe beneficial to the public. It was onlywhen the refrain of some particularly vulgarmusic-hall song broke upon his ears in thestreets that he permitted himself to speakharshly about variety theatres.


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82 LEWIS CARROLLComic 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, andhe would often speak affectionately of thepantomimes at Brighton during the regimeof Mr. and Mrs. Nye Chart. But of theup-to-date pantomime he had a horror, andnothing would induce him to visit one." When pantomimes are written for childrenonce more," he said, *' I will go. Not tillthen."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 dissuadedher.To conclude what I have said about

Lewis Carroll's affection for the dramaticart, I will give a kind of examination paper,written for a child who had been learning arecitation called " The Demon of the Pit."Though his stuttering prevented him frombeing himself anything of a reci::. r, he Lved


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^-

THE LITTLE I'KINCES

83


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84 LEWIS CARROLLcorrect elocution, and would take any painsto 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 youunderstand it all. So please answer thesequestions just as you would do if a youngerchild (say Mollie) asked them."

Mollie. Please, Ethel, will you explainthis poem to me. There are some veryhard 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 meansto take a chance work.^

Mollie. Then, near the end of the firstverse" Whereupon she '11 call her cronies "

' At this point the real child's answers begin, the three or fourlines alone were written by Mr. Dodgson himself. Ed,


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LEWIS CARROLL 85what does ''whereupon" mean? Andwhat are cronies ?

EtJicl. I think whereupon means at thesame time, and cronies means her favouriteplayfellows.

Mollie. "And invest in proud polonies."Wliat 's to " invest ?

"

Ethel. To invest means to spend moneyin anything you fancy.

Mollie. And what 's "A woman of theday?"

Ethel. A woman of the day means awonder 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 ofHcrhtnincT.

Mollie. Then the 8 lines that begin "Theastounding infant wonder "please explain" role " and " mise " and " tout ensemble "and "grit."

Ethel. Well, Mollie, "role" means so


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86 LEWIS CARROLLmany different things, but in " The Demonof the Pit " I should think it meant theleading part of the piece, and " misemeans somethincr extra orood introduced,and " tout " means to seek for applause, but" ensemble " means the whole of the partstaken together, and grit means somethingQ-Qod.

Mollie, *' And the Goblins prostrate tum-ble." What 's " prostrate " ?

Ethel. I believe prostrate means to becast down and unhappy.

Mollie. ''And his accents shake a bit."What are " accents " ?

Ethel. To accent is to lay stress upon aword.

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 ?


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LEWIS CARROLL 87EtJiel. Mollle, dear, your last question Is

very funny. In the first place, I havealways been told that hot suppers are notgood for any one, and I should think thatTRIPE would not be light to dream on butVERY heavy,

Mollic, Thank you, Ethel.I have now nearly finished my little

memoir of Lewis Carroll ; that is to say, Ihave written down all that I can rememberof my personal knowledge of him. But Ithink it is from the letters and the diariespublished in this book that my readers mustchiefly gain an insight into the character ofthe greatest friend to children who everlived. Not only did he study children'sways for his own pleasure, but he studiedthem in order that he might please them.For instance, here is a letter that he wroteto my little sister Nelly eight years ago,which begins on the last page and is writtenentirely backwardsa kind of variant on his


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88 LEWIS CARROLLfamous " Looking-Glass" writing. You haveto begin at the last word and read back-wards before you can understand it. Theonly ordinary thing about it is the date. Itbegins I mean begins if one was to read itin the ordinary waywith the characteristicmonogram, 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 forit forgot you that was it pity a what and : him offond so were you wonder don't I and, gentleman oldnice very a was he. For it made you that ///;// beenhave must it see you so -.grandfather my was, tJien alivewas that, ' Dodgson Uncle' only the. Born was /before long was that, see you, then But. ' DodgsonUncle for pretty thing some make I '11 now,' it beganyou when, yourself to said you that, me telling herwithout, knew I course of and : ago years many greata it made had you said she. Me told Isa what fromwas it ? For meant was it who out made I howknow you do ! Lasted has it well how and. Grand-father my for made had you Antimacassar prettythat me give to you of nice so was it, Nelly dear my."


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LEWIS CARROLL 89

Bo cnn Ô ^trr U:^ââ^

3d CihB^ ff^^^ d^y^ytA-o^ ^LffKrt

^^t^jurt. î^^CLAht> ^rw^T iJUjê^

Aa.. ^âfn. c^l ^-^f^


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90 LEWIS CARROLL

a>\j


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92 LEWIS CARROLL" My dear Birdie, I met her just outside Tom

Gate, walking very stiffly, and I think she was tryingto find her way to my rooms. So I said, ' Why haveyou come here without Birdie ? ' So she said, ' Birdie 'sgone ! and Emily 's gone ! and Mabel is n't kind tome ! ' And two little waxy tears came running downher cheeks.

" Why, how stupid of me ! I 've never told you whoit was all the time ! It was your new doll. I wasvery glad to see her, and I took her to my room, andgave her some vesta matches to eat, and a cup of nicemelted wax to drink, for the poor little thing was veryhungry 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 muchrather not. You know I do melt so very easily !

'

And she made me take her quite to the other side ofthe room, where it was very cold : and then she sat onmy knee, and fanned herself with a pen -wiper, be-cause she said she was afraid the end of her nose wasbeginning to melt.

You 've no idea how careful we have to be,' wedolls, she said. ' Why, there was a sister of minewould you believe it ?she went up to the fire towarm her hands, and one of her hands dropped rightoff ! There now ! ' ' Of course it dropped 7-ight off,'I said, ' because it was the right hand.' ' And howdo you know it was the right hand. Mister Carroll?'the doll said. So I said, ' I think it must have beenthe right hand because the other hand was left.'

" The doll said, 'I shan't laugh. It 's a very bad


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LEWIS CARROLL 93joke. Why, even a common wooden doll could makea better joke than that. And besides, they 've mademy mouth so stiff and hard, that I cant laugh if Itry ever so much ?' ' Don't be cross about it,' I said,' but tell me this : I 'm going to give Birdie and theother children one photograph each, which ever theychoose; which do you think Birdie will choose?'' I don't know,' said the doll ; ' you 'd better askher ! ' So I took her home in a hansom cab. Whichwould you like, do you think ? Arthur as Cupid? orArthur and Wilfred together? or you and Ethel asbeggar 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 ofnote-paper the followinc^ Ollendorfian dia-logue. It is interesting because, slight andtrivial as it is, it in some strange way bearsthe imprint of Lewis Carroll's style. Thething 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 wantto buy. Now do be quick ! You move soslow ! What a time you take with yourboots !


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94 LEWIS CARROLL" Don't make such a row about it : It 's not

two o'clock yet. How do you like thishouse ?"" 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 improvedplan."

" What does the rent amount to ? "*' Oh, the rent 's all right : it 's only nine

pounds a year."

Over all matters connected with letterwriting, Lewis Carroll was accustomed totake great pains. All letters that he re-ceived that were of any interest or import-ance whatever he kept, putting them awayin old biscuit tins, numbers of which hekept for the purpose.

In 1888 he published a little book whichhe called " Eight or Nine Wise Wordsabout Letter Writing," and as this littlebook of mine is so full of letters, I think I cando no better than make a few extracts :


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.^^i

DOLLY VARDEN

95


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96 LEWIS CARROLLWrite Legibly.The average temper of the hu-

man race would be perceptibly sweeter if every oneobeyed this rule ! A great deal of the bad writingin the world comes simply from writing too quickly.Of course you reply, 'I do it to save time.' A verygood object, no doubt ; but what right have you todo it at your friend's expense ? Is n't his time asvaluable as yours? Years ago I used to receive let-ters from a friendand very interesting letters toowritten in one of the most atrocious hands everinvented. It generally took me about a iveek to readone of his letters ! I used to carry it about in mypocket, and take it out at leisure times, to puzzleover the riddles which composed itholding it indifferent positions, and at different distances, till atlast the meaning of some hopeless scrawl would flashupon me, when I at once wrote down the Englishunder it ; and, when several had thus been guessed,the context would help one with the others, till at lastthe whole series of hieroglyphics was deciphered. Ifail one's friends wrote like that, life would be entirelyspent in reading their letters."

hi writing the last wise word, the authorno 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 anote sheet, and find you have more to say, takeanother piece of papera whole sheet or a scrap, asthe case may demand ; but, whatever you do, don't


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LEWIS CARROLL 97cross! Remember the old proverb, 'Cross writingmakes cross reading.' ' The old proverb,' you sayinquiringly; 'how old?' Well, not so very ancient,I must confess. In fact I 'm afraid I invented itwhile writing this paragraph. Still you know ' old ' isa 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 thatwas only half out ! "

I have another diary to give to my readers,a diary that Lewis Carroll wrote for mysister Maggie when, a tiny child, she cameto Oxford to play the child part, Mignon,in " Booties' Baby." He was delighted withthe pretty play, for the interest that thesoldiers took in the little lost girl, and howa mere interest ripened into love, till thelittle Mignon was queen of the barracks,went straight to his heart. I give the diaryin full :

"MAGGIE'S VISIT TO OXFORDJune g to 13, 1899

When Maggie once to Oxford cameOn tour as ' Booties' Baby,'

She said ' I '11 see this place of fame,However dull the day be !


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98 LEWIS CARROLLSo with her friend she visited

The sights that it was rich in :And first of all she poked her headInside 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 singShouting 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 eatFor Maggie may beBooties' 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 uponher nameWas Mrs. Hassall then

Into a College Room they came,Some savage Monster's Den !

' And, when that Monster dined, I guessHe tore her limb from limb ?


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LEWIS CARROLL 99Well, 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 foundA 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 goShouting the Battle-cry of Freedom !

' Miaow ! Miaow !Come, make your bow !Take off your hats,Ye Pussy Cats !And purr, and purr,To welcome herFor Maggie may beBooties' Baby ! '

So back to Christ Churchnot too lateFor them to go and seeA Christ Church Undergraduate,Who gave them cakes and tea.


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loo LEWIS CARROLLNext 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 grimaceAnd grinned with all its might !

A little friend, industrious,Pulled upwards, all the while.The corner of its mouth, and thusHe helped that face to smile !

'How nice,' thought Maggie, 'it would beIf / 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 bringsSome bread a friend had given the child.

To feed the pretty things.They flock round Maggie without fear :

They breakfast and they lunch,


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LEWIS CARROLL loiThey 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 childSo sweet and mild :We all rejoiceAt Maggie's voice :We all are fedWith Maggie's breadFor Maggie may beBooties' Baby ! '

To Pembroke College next they go,Where little Maggie meets

The Master's wife and daughter : soOnce more into the streets.

They met a Bishop on their wayA Bishop large as lifeWith 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,'


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I02 LEWIS CARROLLHer 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 sawTwo players hurl aboutA 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 // wasas its name will showA much more graceful Game.The Misses Symonds next they sought,Who begged the child to takeA book they long ago had boughtA gift for friendship's sake !Away, next morning, Maggie went

From Oxford-town : but yetThe 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 !


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