Jabberwocky Unbounded

Dearest Emily,

Following our Frabjous Easter Sunday walk, when we pretended we were horses galumphing on the Down,

GiGi had some time today back at the Olde Booke Shoppe, to get back to the serious business in hand- i.e; The Mystery of the Jabberwock.

This poem, I don't know why- has always been a favourite of mine- and I can recite it too. I like the way it sounds like something but you don't know what exactly.

'Twas brillig, and the slithey toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome wraths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjud bird, and shun 

The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand

Long time the manxome foe he sought-

So he rested by the Tumtum tree,

And stood a while in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgy wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two, One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

And hast though slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh, Callay!

He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig and the slithey toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

So, that's the deal. But where did the story originate in Dodgson's febrile imagination Em?  I knew somehow that there was no point looking for this at Freshwater- in fact all the creatures don't seem to belong here. But I did feel that they had something to do with his childhood home and also the P.R.B's and Whitburn.

I set my thoughts aside- the time will come when all will be revealed I felt. Six weeks ago, I heard about a book that claimed a lot of character-setting in Sunderland- which interested me. However, I could not find a copy of the book anywhere for love nor money, until one came up at a Library in Durham. So I sought out an inter-library order to borrow it.

Then I forgot all about it ( and unfortunately the books I took out that day ) and so when I went along to pick it up- it was rather an expensive outing!

Here's the book Emily...

'A Town Like Alice's' by Michael Bute. The cover isn't dissimilar in design to mine, and I couldn't wait to start reading it.

Here's the info gleaned from it on the origins of the Jabberwocky. I've quoted a lot verbatim- as it's all in there;

The Legend of the Lambton Worm-

An Anglo-Saxon 'Wyrm' meant a dragon or a snake. In the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf; the dragon is called the Wyrm, and in nearly all the legends abounding in the North of England the worm was a monster of vast size and power. Bram Stoker also discussed the possibilities of the existence of these creatures in the Lair of the White Worm.

Many Churches in England like the one in the ancient village of Sockburn-on-Tees show worms being killed, and all of the Christian Saints to whom the killing of the dragon came to be attributed are Saints Michael, George and Catherine.

The Legend of the Lambton Worm has been recounted for centuries, puzzled over, dismissed as fiction or explained away as allegory.

Surtees wrote the 'History of Durham' in 1820 and traces John Lambton 'Knight of Rhodes' through five generations.

The second John Lambton, in the 13th Century, spent his Sundays fishing in the river Wear. He flung a catch of a worm 'of most unseemly and disgusting appearance' into a nearby well ( now known as the Worm Well. )

Allegedly, whilst the young Lambton was away fighting the Crusades, the worm moved onto the left bank of the river, and Lambton heard tales of the creature devastating the countryside- and all attempts to kill it proved abortive- since it had the power of re-uniting itself.

In 'Through the Looking Glass', Alice tries to make sense of the poem of the Jabberwocky. She says "I've cut several slices already, but they always join on again!"

On the advice of a Witch ( often good Emily, ) Lambton was told to stud his armour with spear-blades and put his trust in his crusading sword.

" He took his vorpal sword in hand, long time the manxome foe he sought"

Lancellyn Green ( Carroll's diary editor ) quoting Stuart Collingwood- states that the verse of Jabberwocky was written initially at Croft in 1855 ( Dodgson's family home- which makes sense to me  ) and added to whilst he was staying with cousins Wilcox at Whitburn near Sunderland. He suggests that the party included a mutual cousin- Menella Bute Smedley. Menella had advised Dodgson on early writings and assisted him in publications in the 'Train' and 'Comic Times'.

On one of the evenings during the visit a verse making game was held, and Jabberwocky was added to as Dodgsons contribution- intertwining the Lambton worm tale with a parody of Menella's much longer versification of a German legend 'The Shepherd of the Giant Mountains'.

In 1867, the 'Ballad of the Lambton Worm' was re-written by CM Leumane- so it was something still held topical by our Mid-Victorian focus-group.

Dodgson closely held on each word that Menella gave to him, and on the 22nd November 1871, a month before the conclusion of Through the Looking Glass that year, states in his diary-

'Heard from Menella Smedley approving of the little Christmas adddress I had sent in manuscript.'

The address with which he had introduced Alice Through the Looking Glass in a four page pamphlet, being the book which begins with the verse of Jabberwocky ( and Emily, was set to also be illustrated with Tenniels drawing of same- except Dodgson having sent it to various Mothers for comment, deemed too scary for children to open with. )

So, there we are Emily, the origins of the Jabberwocky are placed here in Dodgson's early home years, and I can clearly imagine his taste for local legend and tale.

More-over, I am excited that the journey we are taking is now leading us on to the creatures in both the Alice books ( remember the old P.R.B appreciating Ruskin who was turned into the Gryphon? ) and as we begin a new twist to the tale...

As if by magic, here at the Bookroom today...

A Gentleman was browsing the bookshelves as I scribbled notes for todays post, and as I was finishing serving somebody, he came over and said...

" So are you a Teacher? "

" No" I replied.

" So, what are you writing? "

I briefly summarised that I had written a book for my Grand-daughter, and that now I had finished it- had moved on to the creatures in Lewis Carroll's books.

" Oh", he says. " He wasn't very successfull was he?".

" Depends on how you look at it " says I  recounting Dodgson's pecuniary success, and as I am finding out ( to be recounted later ) also quite legendary benevolence financially.

Off goes said gent, telling me he has just read a bit about him in the Topography section- which he will find and show me what he meant.

Why THANK-YOU un-named Gentleman, who dropped Arthur Mee's 'The Kings England- Surrey 1938' onto my desk, from which I paraphrase here:-

Dodgson...'Took orders, but never entered the Church... He did preach from time to time, sometimes to undergraduates, but more commonly to Christ-Church servants and to children'

Etc, then-

'There were two Dodgsons, in temperament and in name... He developed into as whimsical a crank as any of the deathless company in his pages, not only in his dealings with other men, but in his work.'

And, last but not least Em, regarding this post in particular- a golden nugget to back-up Dodgson's early interest in worms stands clear in this paragraph-

' At Oxford, his genius for mathematics carried him to the foremost place; but for history and philosophy he had no taste or talent. He revealed the profoundest ignorance of Herodotus, and the examiner at last said "Well, Mr Dodgson, is there any fact mentioned by Herodotus that you do remember?"

At that Dodgson brightened up, and named with much satisfaction a Libyan tribe of which the historian recoreded nothing but that they had painted themselves red and ate apes. That came home to him indeed, for he had many friends amongst the frogs and snails of his father's parsonage, and armed worms with tiny tubes with which to conduct defensive war'.

Well, Emily, who knew?

And, with which today, I rest my utterly serendipitous case!

Sleep well, my precious,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxxx

'Hilda-gate'. Granny's in bother Emily!

Dearest Emily,

This little Tale from the Bookroom, was certainly not on my agenda! I've been a bit quiet on the post-front I know-  well my dear- it's all because I made fun about someone who didn't exist.

I know Emily, that doesn't make sense, and I shall try at the end of this little tale, to draw a useful moral from it for you.

So this is how it goes...

I'm genning up on Anne Thackeray-Ritchie currently, as you know. Since my interest became a focus on Julia's style and her direct influence here on Bloomsbury and its' set, Anny has become a key-player. The more I read about her- the more I feel this- and focussing on her, reflects back on getting more of a sense of who Julia was in a funny sort of way.

Just today, I read a little piece in this book 'The Hidden Houses of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell' by Vanessa Curtis. It was about Anny and how Julia took some responsibility for predicting her Brother-In -Law- Leslie Stephen's romantic attachment with Julia's niece Julia Duckworth. Apparently Julia put it about that they met at a Ball at Dimbola. This is amusing, as an insight into Julia- who more than once felt she was solely responsible for romantic unions, and also that she called such a gathering a 'Ball, held in the panelled Ball-room at Dimbola'. Unless the gallery where the shop is now located was once panelled ( we shall have to investigate more, ) then the room referred to is the Entrance Hall, which as a Ballroom wouldn't have had a lot of space for dancing! Anyhow, all food for thought.

So, back to my bother. I had begun the last blog-post with Anny's famous quote-

'Is there no one who is commonplace here? Is everybody either a poet, or a genius, or a painter, or peculiar in some way?'

It struck me then, as it strikes me again particularly over the last week that some things don't change!

I made the quote into a Poster for the Tearoom as my Chairman requested, and that should have been that really.

But it wasn't.

Amongst my emails were a thread that had been sent as a 'round-Robin' by someone locally. I don't always get round to reading these I'm ashamed to say, though I mean to, but saw my name come up in some of the text. So, I opened it, and read that I was allegedly 'looking for Hilda Norris'. Oh hec, I thought ( explanation later ) how did that happen? Then, I read further- aghast to see that not only had I been flagged up as looking for someone- but that 'apparently, she was the only 'commonplace' woman ever to enter Dimbola'. Followed to my dismay, by a series of people suggesting families of that name who had resided in Freshwater!  Oeer...

I thought back- and can only surmise this.. After I've put up a blog-post, the link goes to my own facebook page- which is locked down to my friends only. 
I received a comment after the last one- containing a jesting bit of banter about a spoof bit of research someone had done about one- Hilda Norris 'allegedly the only commonplace woman to enter Dimbola', to which I had jokingly responded that this fellow should come along to Lynn Truss' talk and see if she knew anything about her. Lynn's fabulous Novel Tennysons-Gift is a suggestion of how characters might have related to each other, and very much the spirit of the tradition of the lampoon, the satire, spoof and humorous conjecture that Dodgson himself championed.

So, light-hearted banter ended there- but grew into a right little monster for me in this email thread. I interjected quite innocently at the time- to say it was not serious. Then, all of a sudden, I became the Hell-Monstress who had 'wasted people's time, and obviously wasn't a Founder Member of the JMCT'.
Oh my, Emily- I hadn't seen that one coming! Apparently, the fellow who had the gall to make her up is now being sought out for a flogging too...

Red-rag to Freshwater Bull, now it seems, that quite without my help or hindrance, the lovely Hilda has begun to take on a life of her own. Her name keeps cropping up here and there, with anecdote and rumour. The Board gave her several 'asides' last week at their meeting. Several volunteers now give her regular mention- and a member of Staff suggested that the family here-abouts by the name of Norris might like to join in the fun.

So, Emily- time to draw some sort of moral for my little Grandaughter with the supposed wisdom I have gleaned over the years. Maybe I should start theorising to you about not putting your head above any parapets. Or, that the Evil Facebook is to be eschewed for all time. Or, that you should take life a little more seriously than your feckless Grandmother has done.

But Emily, looking at your little mischievous face, and flattering myself that I know something about your essence of character, I say this...

Do you think Hilda was a Gardener- and she spent most of her time in this little potting shed?

After all Emily, she has certainly sewn a few seeds around hereabouts.

And Emily, don't you think perhaps that her alleged illegitimate Great-Great-Grandaughter whose 'autograph' my dear friend Bob found in a book inside cover today for me...

might have been the Lady who said...

" There isn't anyone who is commonplace here. Everybody is either a poet, or a painter, or peculiar in some way ".

( Though Em, apparently, allegedly, she only said that to counter the slur on her Great-Great-Grand-Mother's commonplace-ness, and has been heard to mention somewhat agressiveley at times- after all she now resides at the Nook nursing home- that her Great-Great-Grandmother's autobiographical 'Tales from the Potting Shed' were- contrary to popular belief, not all burned by the family. )

I do know that your Great-Grandad would have approved, if he had been lucky enough to be here still and know you.

That's good-enough for me.

A tout-a l'heure Emily!

Your ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi xxx

Linking Freshwater to Bloomsbury- Anne Thackeray Ritchie

Dearest Emily,

A sixteen year old girl came to visit the Isle of Wight in 1853. She was the daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, the Author of many Victorian novels including 'Vanity Fair'. Mr Makepeace like Julia, had been born in India, and came to England, his family suffering financial losses- which appeared to drive him to write as much as possible- as family poverty had also driven Dickens.
Anne Thackeray spent most of her childhood in Paris, living with her Grandparents ( her Mother had been suicidal and when she tried to drown Anny's sister Minny in the bath, she was institutionalised. )
Papa Thackeray's fortunes rose, and the girls were once more able to live with him.

Anny remarked on her first visit...

And just over a decade later, in January 1864, following their Father's untimely death, she and her sister were brought down into the protective bosom of the Freshwater Circle under Julia Margaret Cameron and Tennyson's wings.
They stayed a few months, though were unlikely to have been around when Dodgson visited that year. They would probably have been aware of each other even if they did not actually meet- I have not come across any mention of CLD or his works in Anny's correspondences.
Anny and Minny were to become a part of the truth of her casual teenage remark in 1853, though quite how big an influence comes much later in her life and the way her descendents intertwined and inspired each other.
In the period of our focus, Anny was becoming a writer in her own right and she published "The End of a Long Day's Work," in the Cornhill Magazine in August of this year.
Anny was very fond of her 'adopted family' at Freshwater and spoke of Julia's kindness towards her. She also worshipped Tennyson, and even wrote a novel very scarcely veiled on the Circle entitled 'From an Island' in 1877.
Julia as we would expect, photographed her;

This photograph of Anne was taken by Julia in May 1870. 

It is later, when Mr and Mrs Cameron had upped sticks,  and left for Ceylon (along with two coffins an a cow)  that Anny's influence on the Bloomsbury group becomes intertwined with Julia and her own Bohemian legacy. Julia's sister Maria, had a daughter Julia who was first married to Herbert Duckworth, who died suddenly when Maria's children were still infants. Julia was her aunt's favourite model, and for me here is an example of one of her best early successes.

Anny's sister Minny was married to Leslie Stephen, and Minny died suddenly aged just 35. In time a friendship between the widow Julia and the widower Leslie Stephen deepened and they married. They had four children of their own- of which one Virginia Woolf is notable for our links.
Virginia is said to have been heavily influenced by the inspiration of Anne Thackeray, who in 1877 became Anne Thackeray Ritchie when she married her cousin Richmond. They had a house in Freshwater close to Dimbola called 'The Porch'.

Anny is described as absent-minded and with a good sense of humour. My interest in the Mid-Victorians- particularly the Freshwater Circle, and how the Bloombsury set were inspired by them - uses Anny as a key player by family links alone. Her literary accomplishments flesh this out further.

One day, last Autumn when I was putting together a little post about Thomas Hood who was a favourite comic poet amongst the mid-vics, I came across this particular volume of his works;

I decided this was one that I needed to buy, and so worked for virtually nothing that day. Nothing new there, Emily- books have a habit of becoming a habit.

Reading it later at home, I noticed the inscription;

This does look rather like Julia Margaret Cameron's writing! And Anny was at Freshwater on that date. The only thing that's amiss- is tat it says 'Annie' not Anny. A mistake on Julia's part perhaps-she could be careless, or it could be a different Annie, and a different Julia. But it might be Emily, and I shall treasure it anyhow!

Signing off,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx

After a Fashion

Dearest Emily,

Since we put your little book to bed so to speak, I started turning my attention to matters Dimbola once more. We ( the Committee for Building and Decor ) were discussing plans for 2015, which is Julia's Bi-centenary and we want to mark it well.

A problem that I perceive, is that we keep coming up with Mid-Victorian references for decor ( naturally ) and Indian ones, and French because that is Julia's path- but nothing actually 'fits'. Pugin was too heavy for Julia's tastes, Arts and Crafts as it was then- neither aristocratic enough for Mrs C, or at the time 'Bohemian enough' for her. She and her sisters did not adopt the Crinoline which was 'de rigeur' for the day- she did embrace the birth of anilyne dyes that produced garishly bright colours ( something the pre-Raphs abhorred. ) She loved light- that is central to her- and her house reflects that love. She put windows facing the sun everywhere in developing the two houses, and in her 'Glass-House' ( a former Chicken-Coup ) draped fabrics and shawls a-plenty to work with the effects of light and subject.

As a Woman who was forever trying to 'arrest beauty' through her lens, she cared not for her own appearance unduly, and there are not many photographs of her for study. Not considered a 'Beauty' though her sisters were very much famed for theirs- this seemed inconsequential to her, and in turn I think, generally people did not know quite how to pigeon-hole this rather remarkable lady.

Julia Margaret Cameron was certainly not what we would call 'Cool' in the eyes of the well-dressed Victorian Ladies. Harpers magazine would not have featured her and her sisters off-beat style of making their own brightly coloured dresses, waisted with curtain sash-cords- or rated her trailing red shawls or flailing bonnet strings as she rushed hither and thither creating her next project. Nor would they understand the hastily prepared meals ( it seems mostly of bacon and eggs! ) that were flung together for a last minute gathering at the end of a busy day. These meals were attended by an envied clique of poets, artists, writers and philosophers. Vibrant and heated discussion continued into the night, the Ball-room became a whirl of impromptu gaiety and this in summer evenings often spilled out onto the Down, where young couples let down their hair and ran and danced, whilst their elders sat and re-invented the philosophical wheel of the time.

How different from the rigid conformist socially aspiring scene of the time. It was expected that one dressed just like everyone else. It was expected that one held particular suppers for particular people- and Julia did- she idolised Eminent Victoria Men. But- not in the same way. Described as 'slightly comic' Julia was so much her own woman, that she defied definition. Her sisters came in for a lot of spiteful gossip for their beauty alone, and Julia was sniped at for her opinions and bookishness.

But actually Emily, what strikes me, and is setting me off at another tangent- is where I came in to all this. When I first visited Juila's house, something seemed very familiar indeed. I had always been fascinated with the Bloomsbury set, yet had not come across the connection between Julia and Virginia Woolf ( she was her Great-Aunt. )

More and more, I understand how this group was influenced by Julia herself- how these particular Victorians inspired the next generation artistically and style-wise. Julia unwittingly was the epicentre of what I shall now call- 'The Pre-Bloomsbury Sisterhood' as a jumping off point...

Theatrical, left of field, hard to define and very very much it's own particular style.

Here is a photograph that Julia took of her Daughter-In-Law that very much sums up my train of thought today.

More another time...

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxx

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Dearest Emily,

Well, you never know when you are going to get your next nugget of information.
I just popped up to the Post Office as I had been told that they had a Victorian engraving of Plumbly's Hotel that I might be interested in for the book. Here it is!

That was a treat in itself- and as I'm editing the layout this afternoon round at Bob's, I shall add it in to the manuscript, and we are almost done. But, Em- that isn't the exciting bit- do you remember me telling you that there was a lady with the surname Dodgson who lived in Gigi's house until she died in 2001? It may have been subconsciously another of the triggers that set me off on my quest. Anyhow- beyond the fact that she served at St Agnes Church, and allegedly witnessed the Arch Rock falling down in the Bay in 1992- I have failed to get any more info on her- try as I might. Until today that is.

I do have a theory about her, but I shall save that until I've got all my 'ducks in a row'.

Back to this morning. So, I paid for the lovely engraving, and the chap behind the counter says,

" Did you know that there was a Lady who used to live in the Bay, who claimed to be a relative of Charles Dodgson? "

I did.

I did not know how helpful this little chat was going to be. Apparently she used to clean for the Post Office family, and a picture of her is currently being looked for. More-over her name was not Anne- as previously thought; but actually Helen Anne Dodgson. Whilst I was then queuing to send off my Ebay parcels, David was carrying out some investigations on what turns out to be a favourite hobby- Family History.

He calls me back over to his counter- and produces her date and place of birth- and her mothers surname. Five minutes later and we had struck gold- at least in my 'investigation-rock'.

Anne was a name that carried through the Dodgson-line. Margaret Anne was the name of one Charles sisters, and the name Anne is carried through the line way back to the 1600's.

Helen Anne Dodgson was born in Paddington in 1922. Her Mother's surname was Roper.

There's a Margaret Dodgson ( possibly sister ? ) born September 1920 in Richmond.

Five minutes later- he has found John Charles Dodgson who died in the 1940's and was married to Harriet Helen Roper. What interests me most about this is that they lived at the time of his death in Eastbourne, which was another of Charles Dodgsons stomping grounds...

More as I find it Em- think they could be descendents of Charles' brother Wilfred who married Alice Jane Donkin, first photographed below by Charles on 9th October 1862 ( he married her in 1871 )

Until next time,

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxx

A Train of Thought.

Now then Emily,

I know we said Humpty Dumpty tonight, and I know I said so for two nights running- but we have read it before Emily you remember?

Anyway GiGi wants to tell you how Alice ended up as a train journey of thought, and how this figured in Dodgson's idea for a sequel.

All right, ok, I'm sorry, and I will tell you about Humpty again I promise. Look, here's a nice new picture of Alice for you. She's on a train...

Not only that Em, but the inspiration for this one ( though GiGi's colouring in lends itself more to Modigliani met Van Gogh on an off day- but then your Daddy paints like that too! ) was your very own Millais!

'My first sermon' Millais

1863

So there you are Em, pre-raph your little heart out on that one ( you'd look good in red by the way. )

Back to business.

So, Dodgson says of his first visit to Wighty, that he happened to come down and stay with an old friend, and that he wasn't coming down just to see Tennyson. Ok. Well, 'Collyns'- said friend wasn't actually in the area, he was on the way- and could easily have been picked up and brought to the Isle, by train or horse. Collyns taught at the school in Hampshire that Dean Liddell's son Harry was a pupil at ( Dodgson's first child friend- he had first met all the Liddells also on a train journey in 1856, just before he accidentally met them again at Oxford whilst photographing the Chapel.) In 1857, there were rumours of an affair with the Liddell's governess- 'Miss Prickett' ( some indicate this as the key to his duality of personality- a broken heart peut-etre. ) We won't bother with the conjecture.

However, when Dodgson came down for the third time, in 1864, after the famous boat-trip that inspired his tale in - he had also had a similarly inspiring train journey with the Liddells in Spring 1863, during which tales were as usual told- but hadn't made it into his debut tome. ( This journey does make it  into chapter three of 'Looking Glass', with a pastiche of Disreali- Tenniel in Punch-stylee dressed in his 'White Paper'. )

Dodgson liked train journeys, and by the time he came down for his 1864 visit- the impending railway route from Yarmouth to Freshwater was still twenty-four years away from fruition- Tennyson being a vociferous objector. 

But this particular journey, prior to the publication of 'Alice in Wonderland' lay dormant, whilst putting said book to bed. 

The characters he met and lampooned here, were woven into an altogether darker sequel. The grotesque, the pre-surrealistic animals ( inspired by the zeit-geist of 'Grandeville' who was Tenniels French protagenist- who has been heralded as the precursor of the Surrealist movement ) and the twisted tangled turn of mind have all distilled into the sequel combining into the most famous childrens books of all time.

There we are Emily, I made my point. 

Hope you liked the pictures.

Sleep well, little one.

Your ever-loving Grand-mother- GiGi xxx

Meeting my thoughts coming back.

Hello Emily,

Brr 'tis cold today. Got to get Miss Emilia and Mr Marley exercised though- up the Down and towards the Monument. When you reach the top and look down towards Yarmouth you can see the view that Dodgson ( a keen walker as well as stalker ) would have seen- which is pertinent to our Chapter today- so shall muffle up and get up there for a piccie for you!

So, Emily, I wrote the above bit this morning- and had intended to do a little bit about the scenery and where Dodgson was inspired to set his characters- and then we were moving on to the Edward Lear chapter. But, me-thinks we shall alight here as it's probably worth a post of its own!

Here's a War department map of the time. Just to the left of the Bay, is Plumbly's Hotel where Dodgson was staying for three weeks in July/August 1864.
Dodgson was known to be a keen walker- often covering 20-30 miles a day. You can see Farringford in the middle of the map, surrounded by trees and meadows, defined by hedges and trees. Just to the bottom of the estate is a plot surrounded by woodland coined 'The Wilderness' ( which crops up in 'Through the Looking Glass'. )

If one takes a diagonal route up from Plumbly's and over the Down through the Wilderness and then onwards off the map to the left, one reaches The Needles- and the then 'Needles Hotel' where we know Dodgson walked to visit friends. That he took this route more than once is also known- and as it is a walk of outstanding natural beauty, plus it means you get a good look at the Farringford Estate, from what we have already learned about Dodgson, it's highly likely he tromped around quite a bit.

I've been convinced that this particular scenery was where Dodgson placed his story since we moved here last June- it was the scenery that actually gave me the first clues. The Wilderness is mentioned, and each precise Tenniel illustration sums up the woodlands and copses succintly for me.

But to try and show the reader my birds-eye view? Tricky.

Anyhows, off I went Em armed with two Labradors to get some shots that aid my notes.
Here they are:-

This is on the way up towards the High Down, ie across a field from Plumbly's towards the Wilderness.

( We'll go into the Wilderness another time ) This one is when you turn around and start to come back, and look across the meadows towards the Farringford.

Turning your head towards the right you start to see squarish meadows cutting the landscape into chunks edged with hedgerows.

Looking further to the right again, you can see GiGi's house in the middle and Freshwater Bay peeking out on the right. This scenery was also intersected with Hedgerow in the 1860's, you can see some of this on the map.

And there you are, on your way back to Plumbly's with the Bay in full sight ( again, remember the fields were at that time intersected and outlined with hedgerows. )

So there we were Em, I thought that was adequate to show where I was coming from on this- so to speak. So I sat down to do a 'colouring in'...

And, whaddya know... It was there all along! Tenniel had already drawn the Bay in the top right hand corner I just hadn't seen it before...

Lucky old GiGi, saves a bit of doubt for the reader eh Em!

Tomorrow, we'll get on to Humpty Dumpty I expect.

Yours as always- ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi xxx

Seaside Squibbles

Dearest Emily,

There we were happily reading and scribbling and a-colouring in Em, and all of a sudden it seemed there had been an explosion!

What began in 'The Bookroom' hasn't stayed in 'The Bookroom' and GiGi's lovely evening sitting room sofa is surrounded by books. Grumpa calls it her 'obsession', and Dimbola's up-coming 'Alice' exhibition is just over a month away.

I think you'll enjoy it Emily, we've got some amazing books from the first UK edition, to a stunning Arthur Rackham, and even a recording from the 1960's with Arthur Askey for a radio show. Auntie Lottie is making a 'Red and White Queen Mannequin' and a lovely lady from Southsea is loaning her private museum display! Alice through the ages, all the different illustrators from Tenniel to date.

However my pretty, it means Granny has got to get a move on, and your little book goes to print at the end of the week- eek!

So, you've seen the cover, and were happy with that. Let's get on to the first chapter...

Freshwater Bay

In the summer of 1864, a socially aspiring young man of 32 took a railway journey followed by a boat trip to the Isle of Wight. He booked himself in to the smart 'Plumbly's Hotel' shown here in a Victorian chromolithograph of Freshwater Bay.

His stay was to be of three weeks duration, and it was the third time he had visited this charming and remote spot.

His first visit, was in May 1859, and appears to all intents and purposes to have been a contrivance to meet the areas most celebrated inhabitant, the Poet Laureate Tennyson.

This, 'I just happened to be in the vicinity and dropped by as is my inalienable right' followed a similar one to meet the Poet and family in Autumn 1857, when they were staying with friends in Coniston.

Armed with his own particular brand of calling card - his photographs, he used his skill as his entree to important houses to make the acquaintance of those who ordinarily ignored his existence. This visit had been planned following an earlier photographic session with Tennyson's young niece Agnes Weld, and therefore his reason for calling.

His day-job as a lowly Mathematician commanded a wage that was far too negligible to warrant status, or the chance of marriage in a social circle he desired to be included into.

He was a shy, stammering insomniac, with a clever twist of mind and a peculiar humour inherited from his very Reverand Father.

This fastidious and timid exterior covered a deep and busy interior. A meticulous recorder and diarist, whose busy head calmed in the presence of children, had an incorrigible habit of perceiving 'slights' and taking offense at behaviour and remarks of others, and had a very specific outlet for revenge- as we shall discover.

At this time, mostly, his revenge had been vented in the form of 'Squibs' ( political and social 'firecrackers' set to get tongues wagging ) and had been published anonymously until one day when he decided on a pen-name made up from the Latin version of his name.

Lewis Carroll.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, as Lewis Carroll wrote the most well-known of all childrens books- 'Alice in Wonderland' published in 1865, inspired by a boat trip in 1862 with the young Liddell sisters of which Alice became the central muse.

Our story concerns a time, when Dodgson was putting one manuscript to bed, and had a free-floating idea for a sequel.

Here at Freshwater Bay, his focus began to shift, from one childrens story-book to another- a flip of the mind into the Looking Glass, and an altogether more sophisticated squib...

Let us get introduced to a new cast of characters to join the Alice crew.

Off to the Bookroom now Em, I'll send you more this week as it gets writ!

Your ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi, xxx

Timorous Beastlies.

Dearest Em,

Back at The Bookroom today ( oh joy! ) having been surplus to requirements over the low season. I've missed it, and the books that found me today were about The Great Exhibition of 1851 ( with some interesting 'Punch' cartoons that Tenniel did; a book on the History of Oxford, with some lovely maps, and a Ruskin children's book written in 1846 "The Tale of the Golden River', with more on the 'Goblin' theme we've visited recently. All interesting stuff.

Then Em, I go home for lunch and to take those two beasties of mine out for their walk- and hey-ho, Amazon's delivered something I've been on the trail of for a while!

Today's work!

Well Emily! 

This post was due to be 'The Red Queen', but no, no, no; we must pause a while, and please pardon my  level of excitement, but ooh Em!

The 'Red King's Dream' by Jo Elwyn Jones and J.Francis Gladstone ( yes, descendant ) is the focus of my delight. Way back when my 'light-bulb moment' happened about JMC being the Red and White Queen, Brian and Colin both mentioned this book to me. Though, they couldn't remember its name and I had misguidedly been looking for 'The Red Queen' so hadn't come across it.

Emily, they're on the same trail as me...

They too found Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and a lot more besides. I simply HAVE to get in touch and compare notes.

For reasons you'll understand I'm sure, my credits for this post lay almost entirely with this book.

So, there I was kinda leaving the 'creatures' in the Alice-books alone, just as I don't touch the Math bit ( brain won't go there. ) 'Fossil' Martin of Black-gang Chine fame, keeps trying to draw me over to this, saying that there was a load of Darwin 'Origin of the Species' relevance. 

However, I kept trying to keep my focus on 'Looking-Glass' stuff, with the only objects of curiosity being those who transcend one to the other ( i.e 'Alice in Wonderland' through to 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' ) but I can't.

To thank Bob again for his really useful term 'Intertextuality', that's what we come back to every time.

Wombats began the creature focus Em, that and the Pre-Raphs, and its not yet time to move on.

Ruskin.  8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900

John Ruskin, primarily Art Critic, also Pre-Raph staunch supporter, and Artist and writer in his own right- who eventually went mad, and who was at Oxford with Dodgson, used to work in to his landscapes, 'secret portraits'. 

More importantly in our tale, he was close to the Liddells,  apparently he was rather keen on Alice's older sister Ina, ( whom he gave a gilt metal filigree necklace to ) and contrived a meeting with the rather over-confident child Alice, when her parents were out for supper.

I don't expect, with what we know of Charlie-boy, that that went down terribly well with him.

So, what did he do? The usual, Em, turn him into something he wrote about and lampooned.

Enter, 'The Gryphon'; Ruskin was very particular about his 'Griffins'. 

An aggrieved Dodgson knew how to push his buttons.

The Gryphon is rather 'distasteful' to Alice who is rather concerned about being left alone with him.

This posts 'colouring in' is from an original draft for the 'Gryphon' by Tenniel- as I'm getting a bit puritanical about the source these days.

Ruskin, only liked to show one side of his face lit properly in portrait, as he had been savaged by a dog as a child- and liked to show his 'best-side'.

Well, I did say we were off to the 'Dark-Side' Em, but I didn't know we were still in 'Alice in Wonderland', I thought we had crossed the divide and were in 'Alice Through the Looking Glass', but no, who knew, 'twas our 'Timorous Beastlies' that would take us there.

So, ma petite, I shall sign orff. We shall get to the Red Queen, I promise.

Somehow I have gotten myself involved at Dimbola with an 'Alice' exhibition. All good of course, but it means a bit more work, obviously no peace for your wicked Grandmother.

Admiringly yours,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi xxxxx

Twinkle twinkle little wombat

Dearest Em,

I read a Christina Rossetti poem at your Mummy and Daddy's wedding- I made a pact with 'Uncle Ben'  the Best Man, that if I didn't cry when I read it- it would mean he wouldn't cry when he did his speech.
I'll put it here, for your posterity- because this blog after-all is for you!

My heart is like a singing bird

                  Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

                  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

                  That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

                  Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

                  Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

                  And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

                  In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

                  Is come, my love is come to me.

'A birthday' by Christina Rossetti 1857

Now then, before we leave the 'Wonderland' aka Oxford let's finish off with a few more characters and their derision. The Pre-Raphs had a bit of a thing about Wombats. Thomas Woolner emigrated to Australia in the early 1850's mentioning them, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti famously kept one at his Chelsea home.

Legend has it that this Wombat was the 'Dormouse' in our Alice, but this can't have been. Rossetti only got his first pet Wombat ( who was rather sickly and died ) in 1869.

Death of a Wombat- D.G.Rossetti 1869

However, a penchant for Wombats abounded. Dante's sister Christina Rossetti, was a regular visitor to Londons Regents park 'Zoological gardens' and introduced their younger brother William Michael to them. She used Wombats and Ratels to describe creatures in her 'Goblin Market' published in 1859. Interestingly, one of the titles that Dodgson was considering for Alice was 'Alice and The Goblins'.

The most likely of muses for the 'Dormouse' at the 'Mad Tea Party' to my thinking is this;- in 1857, the then famous Dante was commissioned to paint the walls and ceilings in the Oxford Union library.

Assisted by among many- William Morris and Burne-Jones. A young nephew of Julia Margaret Cameron's- Val Prinsep on the enjoyment of the task recalled-

‘Rossetti was the planet around which we revolved, we copied his way of speaking. All beautiful women were “stunners” with us. Wombats were the most beautiful of God’s creatures.’

 So, it seems thought Burne-Jones, who after the walls and windows were covered in white-wash took it upon himself to cover these with Wombat sketches. These haven't survived the test of time, but would have been around notably during Dodgsons library visits, underscored by his friendship with, and visits to- the Rossettis.

It is widely known that the boating party of July 1862 were immortalised in Chapters two and three as the 'Duck' ( Robinson Duckworth ) the 'Lory' ( Lorina Liddell ) the 'Eaglet' ( Edith Liddell ) with Dodgson himself as the 'Dodo'.

So the Dormouse is quite likely to have actually been a Wombat really Emily, and there we will leave our exploration of the creatures in 'Wonderland'. Off next time to the dark-side of 'Through The Looking Glass'.

Here's 'Hatter' again, singing his head off ( 'at a great concert given by the Queen of Hearts' )

'Twinkle, twinkle little bat!

How I wonder what you're at!

Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea-tray in the sky.'

A toute a l'heure ma petite fille!

GiGi xxx

Amongst credits are Lady Georgiana Burne-Jones Memoir vols 1 and 2

Origin of the species- 'The Mad Hatter'

Dearest Em,

Before we begin on Matters Hatter, we need to explode a few myths;

1. The Mad Hatter was simply The Hatter, 'twas the March Hare who was mad.

2. The Mad bit was added throughout the strands of time. Hatters were supposed to have poisoned their brains with the lead that they worked with on their hat 'lasts'.

3. Our Hatter was called this akin to Ladies getting a bad name and tarnished as 'being no better than a shop girl'.

There has been a theory that the Hatter was based upon an Oxford furniture dealer known as The Mad Hatter who exhibited his 'Registered Alarum Bedstead' which Dodgson would have seen at 'The Great Exhibition', at Crystal Palace in 1851, and would knowing Dodgson's liking for inventions, have caught his attention.

Dodgson also, kept a train of thought going, often for years. So he may well have been influenced by this fellow.

However- my money is on....

Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol Oxford.

Photographed here at Freshwater Bay 

by Julia Margaret Cameron 1864.

I might have mentioned him to you before Emily. He's the chap who stayed here at GiGi's house, every Christmas and Easter holiday, while he worked away at translating 'Plato' and visiting the Tennysons. He taught Hallam and Lionel chess.

Mr Jowett also came in for some disdain from our Dodgson, in 1865 he published an 'anonymous' squib- as Jowett had just received a massive stipend. This was entitled 'The New Method of Evaluation as applied to II.' It carried a motto " Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his Christmas pie. "

Benjamin Jowett was an extraordinary person. Shy, pedagogal, driven and a reformer. His background was also extraordinary. Away from his family and living alone in lodgings at eleven years old, while he attended St Pauls and often in the holidays too, he set himself apart from a close clan. There were two scholarly Jowetts, the first- Joseph, was co-incidentally Regus Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge from 1782-1813. 

I say co-incidentally for two reasons. Firstly because he was also remarkable in the family history for a shared set of genes that made up a peculiar physicality in the two Jowetts. He had an 'exquisite falsetto voice' , was given to masculine friendships, looked 'cherubic' with a puny physique running to plumpness, and a calmness in the face of opposition.

The second was that it was only these two Jowetts who did not descend into financial ruin, and followed a scholastic career.

When the Jowett seniors businesses declined, it was expected during this time, that 'one would turn to trade'. Trade generally here meant as a Furrier, or a 'Hatter'.

So, our mocking Dodgson to my mind, used Benjamin as his 'Hatter', giving us a clue as to his singing in 'Alice in Wonderland' ( the Jowetts all sang, relentlessly it seems. )

But also Emily, I must bring in here my growing theory that the Dodgsons knew all this, they knew what Lewis Carroll was about in his writings. ( Maybe, just maybe, that's why certain pages of his diary are still missing? ) Anyhow, his nephew and Biographer Stuart Dodgson Collingwood writes in his 'The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll' thus-

" In Mr Dodgson's mess were Philip Pusey, the late Rev. G.C. Woodhouse, and among others, one who still lives in "Alice in Wonderland" as the 'Hatter'. "

Anyways, our Hatter turns up in 'Through the Looking Glass' as two characters ( think Emily- Red and White Queen stuff ) 'Haigha' and 'Hatta' ( one to fetch and one to carry ) and further as a cameo in Chapter Five 'Wool and Water' where he is described as the King's Messenger, who is in prison, following his expected fate in 'Alice'.

Here is the unfortunate chap, locked up in his prison cell, lamenting:-

Dear Hatter, we wish you well, don't we Emily?

Until next time, your ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi xxx

Credits amongst others, this time:- 'Jowett' by Geoffrey Faber, 'Lewis Carroll Through the Looking Glass' by Angela Carpenter, as the main ones.

Tenniel's artistic license

Dearest Emily,

We begin with your favourite artist Millais...

     
                                                'A dream of the past.'   Or 'Sir Isumbrus at the Ford'
                                                           John Everett Millais 1857


( Not too much of my un-favourite Pre-Raph flattening of perspective here- but maybe that's why he's your favourite, Em's! )

Anyhow, my little one- our tale today concerns 'The White Knight' in 'Through the Looking Glass'.
I am convinced ( as have others been before me ) that the White Knight is Dodgson's 'Hitchcock' moment, where he appears in a cameo-role. He even directs Alice's feelings about the whole adventure-

" Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through The Looking Glass, this was the one she always remembered most clearly. Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene back again, as if it were only yesterday- the mild blue eyes and the kindly smile of the Knight- the setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her."

Fast-forward though to post-manuscript when the reluctant Tenniel finally agreed to illustrate the sequel, ( he was quoted as saying how difficult to work with Dodgson had been. ) Tenniel had pulled ranking on Dodgson previously, refusing to model Alice on the original 'Muse' and making her a blonde long-haired child instead. He had even had all copies of the first edition of Alice recalled, declaring himself unhappy with the quality of printing his illustrations.

This time, he appears to be quite cheeky, and not only place a cariacature of himself as the White Knight, but also to base it loosely as a parody of Millais painting above. This I interpret as his idea and not Dodgsons, especially as 'Sir Isumbras' is more akin to the visage of Mr T, than Mr D!

Whether or not Mr Dodgson then did a little re-write to redress the balance can only be conjecture- but a clue to this could be-

"The Knight looked proudly down at his helmet, which hung from the saddle. 'Yes', he said; but I've invented a better one than that- like a sugar-loaf'. When I used to wear it, if I fell off the horse, it always touched the ground directly. So I had a very little way to fall, you see- But there was a danger of falling into it, to be sure. That happened to me once- and the worst of it was, before I could get out again, the other White Knight came and put it on. He thought it was his own helmet."

I think it is likely Emily. And he uses the duality theme right the way through the book as we have discovered before.

I rather like Tenniels sense of humour and his 'battles' with Dodgson. It's a nice side story to look at while we ponder away at the sub-texts...

Back to Sir Isumbras, he had been parodied earlier.

This one from 1857 was by Frederick Sandys.  

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/sandys/3.html  

                                                                                

'Sandys' famous parody of Sir John Everett Millais's A Dream of the Past -- Sir Isumbras at the Ford (1857) features Ruskin as an ass on which Millais (the knight) rises while holding his two children, Rossetti and Hunt. Note The paint bucket and peacock feathers. Ironically, after creating this famous skit of the PRB, Sandys himself became a friend and associate of the Pre-Raphaelites.'

And last but not least Emily, is GiGi's parody for you! Here's us riding the 'Old Heritage Donkey' at Dimbola, Mary 'House Maman', Brian 'Chairman' and Granny clinging on for dear life at the back.

Heheh...

Signing off, your ever loving Grandmother GiGi xxxx