Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (217 page)

One of the few breaks in this very uneventful life was a holiday spent with the other members of his family in Beaumaris.
The journey took three days each way, for railroads were then almost unknown; and whatever advantages coaching may have had over travelling in trains, speed was certainly not one of them.

Mr.
Dodgson from the first used to take an active part in his son's education, and the following anecdote will show that he had at least a pupil who was anxious to learn.
One day, when Charles was a very small boy, he came up to his father and showed him a book of logarithms, with the request, "Please explain."
Mr.
Dodgson told him that he was much too young to understand anything about such a difficult subject.
The child listened to what his father said, and appeared to think it irrelevant, for he still insisted, "
But
, please, explain!"

Mrs Dodgson.

On one occasion Mr.
and Mrs.
Dodgson went to Hull, to pay a visit to the latter's father, who had been seriously ill.
From Hull Mrs.
Dodgson wrote to Charles, and he set much store by this letter, which was probably one of the first he had received.
He was afraid that some of his little sisters would mess it, or tear it up, so he wrote upon the back, "No one is to touch this note, for it belongs to C.
L.
D."; but, this warning appearing insufficient, he added, "Covered with slimy pitch, so that they will wet their fingers."
The precious letter ran as follows:—

My dearest Charlie, I have used you rather ill in not having written to you sooner, but I know you will forgive me, as your Grandpapa has liked to have me with him so much, and I could not write and talk to him comfortably.
All your notes have delighted me, my precious children, and show me that you have not quite forgotten me.
I am always thinking of you, and longing to have you all round me again more than words can tell.
God grant that we may find you all well and happy on Friday evening.
I am happy to say your dearest Papa is quite well—his cough is rather
tickling
, but is of no consequence.
It delights me, my darling Charlie, to hear that you are getting on so well with your Latin, and that you make so few mistakes in your Exercises.
You will be happy to hear that your dearest Grandpapa is going on nicely—indeed I hope he will soon be quite well again.
He talks a great deal and most kindly about you all.
I hope my sweetest Will says "Mama" sometimes, and that precious Tish has not forgotten.
Give them and all my other treasures, including yourself, 1,000,000,000 kisses from me, with my most affectionate love.
I am sending you a shabby note, but I cannot help it.
Give my kindest love to Aunt Dar, and believe me, my own dearest Charlie, to be your sincerely affectionate

MAMA.

Among the few visitors who disturbed the repose of Daresbury Parsonage was Mr.
Durnford, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, with whom Mr.
Dodgson had formed a close friendship.
Another was Mr.
Bayne, at that time head-master of Warrington Grammar School, who used occasionally to assist in the services at Daresbury.
His son, Vere, was Charles's playfellow; he is now a student of Christ Church, and the friendship between him and Lewis Carroll lasted without interruption till the death of the latter.

The memory of his birthplace did not soon fade from Charles's mind; long afterwards he retained pleasant recollections of its rustic beauty.
For instance, his poem of "The Three Sunsets," which first appeared in 1860 in
All the Year Round,
begins with the following stanzas, which have been slightly altered in later editions:—

I watch the drowsy night expire,

And Fancy paints at my desire

Her magic pictures in the fire.

An island farm, 'mid seas of corn,

Swayed by the wandering breath of morn,

The happy spot where I was born.

Though nearly all Mr.
Dodgson's parishioners at Daresbury have passed away, yet there are still some few left who speak with loving reverence of him whose lips, now long silenced, used to speak so kindly to them; whose hands, long folded in sleep, were once so ready to alleviate their wants and sorrows.

In 1843 Sir Robert Peel presented him to the Crown living of Croft, a Yorkshire village about three miles south of Darlington.
This preferment made a great change in the life of the family; it opened for them many more social opportunities, and put an end to that life of seclusion which, however beneficial it may be for a short time, is apt, if continued too long, to have a cramping and narrowing influence.

The river Tees is at Croft the dividing line between Yorkshire and Durham, and on the middle of the bridge which there crosses it is a stone which shows where the one county ends and the other begins.
"Certain lands are held in this place," says Lewis in his "Topographical Dictionary," "by the owner presenting on the bridge, at the coming of every new Bishop of Durham, an old sword, pronouncing a legendary address, and delivering the sword to the Bishop, who returns it immediately."
The Tees is subject to extraordinary floods, and though Croft Church stands many feet above the ordinary level of the river, and is separated from it by the churchyard and a field, yet on one occasion the church itself was flooded, as was attested by water-marks on the old woodwork several feet from the floor, still to be seen when Mr.
Dodgson was incumbent.

This church, which is dedicated to St.
Peter, is a quaint old building with a Norman porch, the rest of it being of more modern construction.
It contains a raised pew, which is approached by a winding flight of stairs, and is covered in, so that it resembles nothing so much as a four-post bedstead.
This pew used to belong to the Milbanke family, with which Lord Byron was connected.
Mr.
Dodgson found the chancel-roof in so bad a state of repair that he was obliged to take it down, and replace it by an entirely new one.
The only village school that existed when he came to the place was a sort of barn, which stood in a corner of the churchyard.
During his incumbency a fine school-house was erected.
Several members of his family used regularly to help in teaching the children, and excellent reports were obtained.

The Rectory is close to the church, and stands in the middle of a beautiful garden.
The former incumbent had been an enthusiastic horticulturist, and the walls of the kitchen garden were covered with luxuriant fruit-trees, while the greenhouses were well stocked with rare and beautiful exotics.
Among these was a specimen of that fantastic cactus, the night-blowing Cereus, whose flowers, after an existence of but a few hours, fade with the waning sun.
On the day when this occurred large numbers of people used to obtain Mr.
Dodgson's leave to see the curiosity.

CROFT RECTORY

Near the Rectory is a fine hotel, built when Croft was an important posting-station for the coaches between London and Edinburgh, but in Mr.
Dodgson's time chiefly used by gentlemen who stayed there during the hunting season.
The village is renowned for its baths and medicinal waters.
The parish of Croft includes the outlying hamlets of Halnaby, Dalton, and Stapleton, so that the Rector's position is by no means a sinecure.
Within the village is Croft Hall, the old seat of the Chaytors; but during Mr.
Dodgson's incumbency the then Sir William Chaytor built and lived at Clervaux Castle, calling it by an old family name.

Shortly after accepting the living of Croft, Mr.
Dodgson was appointed examining chaplain to the Bishop of Ripon; subsequently he was made Archdeacon of Richmond and one of the Canons of Ripon Cathedral.

Charles was at this time very fond of inventing games for the amusement of his brothers and sisters; he constructed a rude train out of a wheelbarrow, a barrel and a small truck, which used to convey passengers from one "station" in the Rectory garden to another.
At each of these stations there was a refreshment-room, and the passengers had to purchase tickets from him before they could enjoy their ride.
The boy was also a clever conjuror, and, arrayed in a brown wig and a long white robe, used to cause no little wonder to his audience by his sleight-of-hand.
With the assistance of various members of the family and the village carpenter, he made a troupe of marionettes and a small theatre for them to act in.
He wrote all the plays himself the most popular being "The Tragedy of King John"—and he was very clever at manipulating the innumerable strings by which the movements of his puppets were regulated.
One winter, when the snow lay thick upon the lawn, he traced upon it a maze of such hopeless intricacy as almost to put its famous rival at Hampton Court in the shade.

TOY STATION IN GARDEN AT CROFT.

When he was twelve years old his father sent him to school at Richmond, under Mr.
Tate, a worthy son of that well-known Dr.
Tate who had made Richmond School so famous.

I am able to give his earliest impressions of school-life in his own words, for one of his first letters home has been fortunately preserved.
It is dated August 5th, and is addressed to his two eldest sisters.
A boy who has
ten
brothers and sisters can scarcely be expected to write separate letters to each of them.

My dear Fanny and Memy,—I hope you are all getting on well, as also the sweet twins, the boys I think that I like the best, are Harry Austin, and all the Tates of which there are 7 besides a little girl who came down to dinner the first day, but not since, and I also like Edmund Tremlet, and William and Edward Swire, Tremlet is a sharp little fellow about 7 years old, the youngest in the school, I also like Kemp and Mawley.
The rest of the boys that I know are Bertram, Harry and Dick Wilson, and two Robinsons, I will tell you all about them when I return.
The boys have played two tricks upon me which were these—they first proposed to play at "King of the Cobblers" and asked if I would be king, to which I agreed.
Then they made me sit down and sat (on the ground) in a circle round me, and told me to say "Go to work" which I said, and they immediately began kicking me and knocking me on all sides.
The next game they proposed was "Peter, the red lion," and they made a mark on a tombstone (for we were playing in the churchyard) and one of the boys walked with his eyes shut, holding out his finger, trying to touch the mark; then a little boy came forward to lead the rest and led a good many very near the mark; at last it was my turn; they told me to shut my eyes well, and the next minute I had my finger in the mouth of one of the boys, who had stood (I believe) before the tombstone with his mouth open.
For 2 nights I slept alone, and for the rest of the time with Ned Swire.
The boys play me no tricks now.
The only fault (tell Mama) that there has been was coming in one day to dinner just after grace.
On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and sat in a large pew with Mr.
Fielding, the church we went to is close by Mr.
Tate's house, we did not go in the afternoon but Mr.
Tate read a discourse to the boys on the 5th commandment.
We went to church again in the evening.
Papa wished me to tell him all the texts I had heard preached upon, please to tell him that I could not hear it in the morning nor hardly one sentence of the sermon, but the one in the evening was I Cor.
i.
23.
I believe it was a farewell sermon, but I am not sure.
Mrs.
Tate has looked through my clothes and left in the trunk a great many that will not be wanted.
I have had 3 misfortunes in my clothes etc.
1st, I cannot find my tooth-brush, so that I have not brushed my teeth for 3 or 4 days, 2nd, I cannot find my blotting paper, and 3rd, I have no shoe-horn.
The chief games are, football, wrestling, leap frog, and fighting.
Excuse bad writing.