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