A Little 'Tritease' on Perception and Rivalry...

BROTHER AND SISTER

"Sister, sister, go to bed!

Go and rest your weary head."

Thus the prudent Brother said.

Do you want a battered hide,

Or scratches to your face applied?"

Thus his sister calm repled.

"Sister do not raise my wrath.

I'll make you into mutton broth

As easily as kill a moth!"

The sister raised her beaming eye
And looked on him indignantly
And sternly answered, “Only try!”
Off to the cook he quickly ran.
“Dear Cook, please lend a frying-pan
To me as quickly as you
can.”
“And wherefore should I lend it you?”
“The reason, Cook, is plain
to view.
I wish to make an Irish stew.”
“What meat is in that stew to go?”
“My sister’ll be the contents!”
“Oh!”
“You’ll lend the pan to me, Cook?”
“No!”
Moral: Never stew your sister.

Charles L. Dodgson 1845

Dearest Emily,

The sun was at long last shining today, as I opened up the Bookroom, and putting a flier up in the window for our 'Alice' exhibition at Dimbola it amused me to see that the flier was directly in front of a shelf containing all the volumes of Ruskin's 'Modern Painters'.

Considering that our studies here in this blog have revealed how Dodgson felt a rivalry towards Ruskin that culminated in the mockery of him in Carrollian Alice-Malice stylee, I wondered how either might have felt about rubbing shoulders in a bookshop, one and a half centuries later.

Hopefully, they would feel a mutual pride in their legacies- both Literal ( Ruskins 'Truth to Nature' was fast acclaimed as an artistic standard, and Carroll's 'Alice' within a period of twenty years of publication became next to the Bible and Shakespeare the most quoted book in our language ) - and financial- both parties were incredibly benevolent- Ruskin to his causes and Dodgson to his descendents.

As we continue this train of thought Emily, I am filled with Grand-motherly joy about the news that you are soon to have a new brother or sister.

After congratulating your Daddy and Mummy, I said "Uh-oh, I don't suppose Miss Emily will take too kindly to having to share the limelight though", which from what I know of you so far, my little one- I don't suppose that to begin with, you will.

But you'll soon learn and adapt and grow in character and know of all the joys and tribulations that having a sibling can bring. Lucky you Em.

Your Daddy and Uncle Ed have always been very close.

Though five years apart- from the day that Daddy laid eyes on his new little brother, he treated him as though given a present. One that he needed to look out for and protect.

He has also fought with him, yelled at him, and nit-picked and berated most of the thoughts that came out as words from his head. There was quite a bit of sibling rivalry along the way too, I even bought books on the subject to try and parent it properly.

Daddy was in awe of Ed's acting prowess and success, and Ed was envious of Daddy's ability to succeed in the Corporate world.

'Twas ever thus Emily, all over the planet, throughout history.

Some of that rivalry is nonsense- and yet helps to shape our own characters and what we do in life.

Take our Ruskin and Dodgson for example. Not siblings of course, but the rivalry was certainly perceived by Dodgson- and his envy of Ruskin's relationship with the Liddells ( he was their Drawing-Master ) and Ruskin's advice to him that attempts to self-illustrate 'Alice' "were a waste of time", culminated in his being turned into the 'Gryphon' and became an immortal part of the eponymous tales.

Who knows what becomes of that which we do during our lifetimes Emily?

I told Daddy that I had better start writing another book soon, as otherwise you would have one, and your brother or sister would not.

But it also strikes me that I've somewhat spoiled your own perceptions of the 'Alice' stories, before you have had a chance to get embroiled in them- so, I'm wondering what Granny- GiGi can now spoil for your sibling's literary childhood...

Ah well Emily, it's all about perception really, isn't it.

I shall end tonight with the advice I gave to your Daddy and Eddie- "Never let the sun go down on an argument between you". They haven't, but they mess up in other ways just the same!

Plus ca change, plus que c'est la meme chose, ma petite...

Your ever-loving Grand-mother GiGi xxxx

Freshwater Bay Through the Looking Glass. The story so far...

Dearest Em,

As GiGi gets further into the story and nearer to the day of having a completed manuscript, I thought it might be a good time to tell you how this all came about. It kind of began as a bit of a joke...

It was spring 2012, and the good old trustees of Dimbola were fighting again. The war this time was about plans for increasing the tearoom and Gift Shop turnover. This is GiGi's area and committee, and our chairman put forward a fab new design and revamp centred around Lewis Carroll's 'Mad Hatter'.

Someone commented that our Julia could be the Queen of Hearts! Someone else said- 'Oh no she couldn't, someone else 'Oh yes she could', and so it went in true trusty trustees style. In one ear for GiGi, but not quite out the other. Something was ringing bells...

That night I went home and read 'Alice' and then 'Through the Looking Glass' and the bells got louder.
The clue was in the Tenniel illustration. It was said of John Tenniel that he could see a photograph, or someone just once, and then cariacaturise them. Well there it was...

Our Jules was not only there in the illustrated cariacature, but also references to her in the text. I looked further, more characters became unmasked- but surely someone must have made the connection before? Handy working at the Bookroom Em's. Especially when there's a heap of stuff Victorian and Island-based. My research library could not have been better stocked! Yes, there had been some tenous links to Tweedledum and Tweedledee being the Tennyson boys, and Lynn Truss's Tennysons Gift, put Dodgson firmly in the Freshwater spotlight. However, it hadn't all been uncovered and put together as to what I increasingly knew it was. Also lucky for me, there were some of the most wonderful and respected Academic bods to confer with right here under my nose about the researched ( and hitherto unresearched ) history of its real-life counterparts.

'Through the Looking Glass' was not only a satire of characters here, but it was set here too. Walking those two characters Milly and Marley Middleton up Tennyson Down and through 'The Wilderness', I was fortunate in being able to see the twists and turns of each chapter daily, right in front of me.

Then there was the poetry parodies to unravel ( most of these have been discovered. ) Then, good old Professor Jowett Master of Balliol ( who regularly stayed her at GiGI's house when translating Plato during his Easter, summer and Christmas holidays- when he taught the Tennyson boys how to play chess ) cropped up as another character, and introduced me to the Oxford Movement and what had preceeded the book.

Such fun Emily, and lots been done and yet to do! Nights sat working on my bibliography, 'colouring in' ( as Grumpa calls my artwork ) and reading, reading, reading.

The even lovelier thing is the symbiosis of this at good old Dimbola. The board decided in September to widen their articles to encompass the incredible 'Freshwater Circle' and lovely Bob two doors down is writing a publication to sell at the House, accompanying his lectures ( you've got to come and hear him Em, he's such a good speaker! ) It's all rather exciting. This area is an incredibly rich part of our National Heritage, it's landscape enticed Tennyson, yes, and then Julia to Dimbola, but more Em and more and more.

My part is the Dodgson study and I'm playing with my cover today, what do you think?

Back to Dimbola and our entree. We did revamp the tearoom. We moved the shop into a better space and cleared the hall-way ( Julia's old ballroom ) of its earlier clutter. The lovely waitresses started serving us coffee with a smile stencilled on. The wonderful volunteers got together to enter for an award this year ( they had all worked their free of charge at Christmas to help the Trust. ) Visitors began to get louder, and relax more over their Sunday lunches, using the hallway as a gathering space.
Julia's former home began to feel cosier and more friendly. I like to think Julia approves of all this somewhere. We aren't even due to launch the changes until Easter, but already there's a vibrant and positive aura emanating from its walls. The new Freshwater Circle is alive and kicking. Dimbola has a history of vital and unique characters populating it's halls, and a new chapter begins to evolve.

I'm really honoured to be a part of all this team-work Emily, I hope you enjoy it when you come again at Easter.
Do you think I found the discoveries, or do you think they found me? I think I know, and I'll tell you why next time!

There you are today with Daddy off on your 'Winter Wonderland walks' today, my little muse.

Can't wait to see you again! Your ever-loving Grandmother GiGi xxxxx

Come into the Garden ( of live flowers ) Maud...

'There has fallen a splendid tear

        From the passion-flower at the gate.

She is coming, my dove, my dear;

        She is coming, my life, my fate;

The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'

       And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'

The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear;'

       And the lily whispers, 'I wait.'

'Come into the garden Maud'

a parlour song from 'Maude and other poems'Tennyson 

1855

Dearest Emily,

Our long deceased neighbour penned his 'scandalous' poem in 1855. Living here at the Bay, and wandering across the Down in his wide brimmed hat and long cloak, he strode and composed, often using flavours from the uncompromising and beautiful natural landscapes around him. Birds, flowers, rocks all influenced his narratives.

Maud is a long and complicated work, touching on an ambivalent attitude to the Crimean War- and this is probably why it had its detractors. It's a heavy piece about love, insanity and death.

It made Ally a heap of money though- enough to exercise his option to buy his beloved Farringford ( and three years later build our house! )


Dodgy Dodgson fell out with Alfred big-time in 1870. Previously their discourse had been cordial ( though as we have seen Emily may well have had certain concerns over how Dodgson had behaved around the family. ) He certainly wasn't a warmly appreciated friend or a part of their circle and hardly ever cropped up in any of Emily's lengthy and wide correspondences.
This time though- Alfred saw red over Dodgson repeatedly requesting permission to keep and show to friends two private and unpublished works that Tennyson had allowed a young composer to set one of to music.
Emily fired off a letter ending "A gentleman should understand that when an author does not give his works to the public he has his own reasons for it".

Dodgson fired back- but as we are increasingly finding usual behaviour for him- his ultimate revenge was parody. His satisfaction appears evermore to me to ' be clever, and so clever, that only you know the secret '. From our focus of investigation- Through the Looking Glass, and the chapter entitled 'The Garden of Live Flowers'.

'She's coming!' cried the Larkspur. 'I hear her footstep, thump,thump, along the gravel-walk!'

Only this time, it wasn't Maud- it was our own 'Red Queen'!

Until next time my little one,

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx

CREDIT DIRECTLY HERE GOES TO JOHN BATCHELOR- 'TENNYSON. TO STRIVE TO SEEK TO FIND' CHATTO AND WINDUS 2012

Not high-brow, or low-brow, but always with an arched brow...

No! 

No sun - no moon!

No morn - no noon -

No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member -

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -

November!

Thomas Hood 1844

Dear Emily,

I don't expect you will feel quite the same as Mr Hood did about the month of November, as you don't live in a London that was at that time full of smog. Your central heating also helps.

Thomas Hood was a writer who was chiefly a humourist. Working in a time that as Thomas Carlyle espoused- all the great thinkers were 'in some sense a product of the force that the French revolution had induced'. Dickens took on the mantle of writer about social demographic and deprivation, Tennyson was given the Laureate-ship by Queen Victoria in an effort to lift the public morale and in his turn, Hood was at the birth of satire and pun into popularity via Punch, and before with his own Editorship at 'The Comic Times'.

It seems to me that at this point in history, satirists, parody-makers and even burlesques ( though these by definition had an attitude of aggression towards the quality of the original ) began to fall into two camps.

Hood was described by Henry Morley as having " the kindest wit and satire, jokes pound out incessantly from pen and pencil, supplying the needs of Hood's household, while in himself consumption was not slowly descending ". His socially commendable Song of the Shirt made it into an inaugural edition of Punch in 1843.

At this time, the weekly Art producer was Mr John Tenniel ( of 'Alice' fame.) Hood it seems was part of the same war as Thackeray ( a friend and admirer ) and Punch to lift society through humour. Edward Lear, as we have previously encountered, was nothing but kindly in his public 'nonsense'. 

Satire is complex. In 1858, 'Home Affections by the poets' written by Charles Mackay contains a collection of  the poetry of love in particular, including five poems by Hood and one in particular hommaging his sleeping children and Wife in an unsycophantic manner. Contrast Walter Jerrold's 'A Century of Parody and Imitation' ( @ 1912 ) which chronologises poems and their parodies by the Grandson of Hood's close friend Douglas Jerrold; which via earlier Shakespearian parody, talks us through the then 'modern' birth of this fancy for him originating on the stage with 'Rejected Adresses' by the naughty Horace and James Smith. The volume is an insight to those who leech for fun, and those who hide behind what satire has always 'pretended' to be about. " The end of satire is reformation"  and "sly hints" contribute to the satirists mask of self-protected obscurity. The fine-line was delved into in Victorian times, and still abounds today.

Back to Mr Hood. His early work included a translation of 'Paul and Virginia' by Jacques Henri Bernardin in 1787. Our own Julia Margaret Cameron photographed her version with Freddy Gould ( who lived at the cottage behind the Fellowship hotel visible out of GiGi's window ) and Elizabeth Keown.

Though he died in his forties, his notability secured his wife a pension from Robert Peel ( as did Tennyson. ) Later, in the critical ( for me ) 1860's, so did Tennyson, who often quoted Thomas Hood, and in particular his ' Epigrams'.

My volume for you little Emily, came into my possession from the Bookroom. I opened it, and found the inscription below...

The writing is very much Julia Margaret Cameron, and I like to think that it was given to Annie Thackeray, daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray- friend and admirer of Hood. Annie and Julia certainly were both here that month, their peers all celebrated Mr Hood, so it could just be...

Your ever-loving Grand-mother, GiGi xxx