Everything stops for Tea...

Dearest Emily,

We're all about Tea and Cakes here at Dimbola right now, so I thought a post about cake and yummy stuff might grab your attention as we do the countdown to your second birthday- for which I shall ask our lovely Gaye to make you a special Victoria Sponge.

Yesterday, we had a lovely Tea-party. This was the first in a planned series of 'Tea-time Talks', and we were very lucky to have kicked off with the fabulous Lynne Truss- famously the author of 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' amongst others including 'Tennysons Gift' that she wrote and set right here. GiGi had deliberately not read this, as I'd been told it dealt with Dodgson and an Alice reference or two- so I didn't want any sub-conscious influencing going on whilst scribing your little tome. ( I did fess this up to Ms Truss and we are happily still talking. )

Anyhow, Lynne was entertaining, and very, very funny Em. We were all in fits of giggles. This, interspersed with my neighbour, who knew I hadn't read it- but had also read your book- turning to me across the room at every relevant reference and winking at me!

All in all, a good afternoon. Earlier that day, I had come in to check that all was set up- and chatting away with two of our peeps at the front desk- one remarked- " It's a day where you feel as though time is standing still. " You know Em, that sort of day where the weather I suppose creates a sort of 'lull' in the air- and it was that sort of atmosphere- helped I guess by it being a Sunday.

Got me thinking about some stuff I had just read in a very interesting and insightfully good alarm-bell ringing book about Dodgson. I swapped this for a yachting book when I did a house clearance a few weeks ago. A L Taylor's 'The White Knight', published in 1952 is a goodie.

Regarding time and the 'Mad Tea Party', he adds credible insight. The Hatter says that his watch is 'Two days wrong'.

There were, even then two ways of calculating the date- one by the calendar, and one by the moon. This Em, must have been an uppermost question of interest in a landscape where the time over the Country itself was being slowly sorted out so that trains came and left with understandable gaps in between...

A Prof. L.J.Russell, of Birmingham University, kindly took the trouble to consult an Almanac to look at this for 1862 ( as most likely did our Dodgson, ) and on Alice's actual brthday that year- the 4th of May, there was exactly two days difference between the calendar way of recording, and the lunar one.

This was at the time what was called the "Hemispherical Problem" and was to all effects, the day that dissappeared.

There was a suggestion, which was finally rejected, that people might be able to choose for themselves, which day it was. ( Our Dodgson wrote an Essay on it. )

In 'Alice' Dodgson, substituted the Day, for the Hour, and the Hatter, and March Hare had to choose which hour it was-
So, they chose 'Tea-Time' ( as the Liddell's were rather fond of the racy new novelty of High Tea, and undoubtedly this would have been what they would have liked! )

So, that's why time stood still and it was 'always tea-time'!

As Dodgson himself wrote to a friend in America;

'Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means'

'In Veritus Dodgsonius' Em, I rather think he pulled that off!

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi xxxx