Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (221 page)

The following is an extract from his father's letter of congratulation, on his being nominated for the Studentship:—

My dearest Charles,—The feelings of thankfulness and delight with which I have read your letter just received, I must leave to
your conception
; for they are, I assure you, beyond
my expression
; and your affectionate heart will derive no small addition of joy from thinking of the joy which you have occasioned to me, and to all the circle of your home.
I say "
you
have occasioned," because, grateful as I am to my old friend Dr.
Pusey for what he has done, I cannot desire stronger evidence than his own words of the fact that you have
won
, and well won, this honour for
yourself
, and that it is bestowed as a matter of
justice
to
you
, and not of
kindness
to
me
.
You will be interested in reading extracts from his two letters to me—the first written three years ago in answer to one from me, in which I distinctly told him that I neither asked nor expected that he should serve me in this matter, unless my son should fairly reach the standard of merit by which these appointments were regulated.
In reply he says— "I thank you for the way in which you put the application to me.
I have now, for nearly twenty years, not given a Studentship to any friend of my own, unless there was no very eligible person in the College.
I have passed by or declined the sons of those to whom I was personally indebted for kindness.
I can only say that I shall have
very great
pleasure, if circumstances permit me to nominate your son."
In his letter received this morning he says—

"I have great pleasure in telling you that I have been enabled to recommend your son for a Studentship this Christmas.
It must be so much more satisfactory to you that he should be nominated thus, in consequence of the recommendation of the College.
One of the Censors brought me to-day five names; but in their minds it was plain that they thought your son on the whole the most eligible for the College.
It has been very satisfactory to hear of your son's uniform steady and good conduct."

The last clause is a parallel to your own report, and I am glad that you should have had so soon an evidence so substantial of the truth of what I have so often inculcated, that it is the "steady, painstaking, likely-to-do-good" man, who in the long run wins the race against those who now and then give a brilliant flash and, as Shakespeare says, "straight are cold again."

ARCHDEACON DODGSON.

In 1853 Archdeacon Dodgson was collated and installed as one of the Canons of Ripon Cathedral.
This appointment necessitated a residence of three months in every year at Ripon, where Dr.
Erskine was then Dean.
A certain Miss Anderson, who used to stay at the Deanery, had very remarkable "clairvoyant" powers; she was able—it was averred—by merely holding in her hand a folded paper containing some words written by a person unknown to her, to describe his or her character.
In this way, at what precise date is uncertain, she dictated the following description of Lewis Carroll: "Very clever head; a great deal of number; a great deal of imitation; he would make a good actor; diffident; rather shy in general society; comes out in the home circle; rather obstinate; very clever; a great deal of concentration; very affectionate; a great deal of wit and humour; not much eventuality (or memory of events); fond of deep reading; imaginative, fond, of reading poetry;
may
compose."
Those who knew him well will agree that this was, at any rate, a remarkable coincidence.

ARCHBISHOP LONGLEY.

Longley, afterwards Primate, was then Bishop of Ripon.
His charming character endeared him to the Archdeacon and his family, as to every one else who saw much of him.
He was one of the few men whose faces can truly be called
beautiful
; it was a veil through which a soul, all gentleness and truth, shone brightly.

In the early part of 1854 Mr.
Dodgson was reading hard for "Greats."
For the last three weeks before the examination he worked thirteen hours a day, spending the whole night before the
viva voce
over his books.
But philosophy and history were not very congenial subjects to him, and when the list was published his name was only in the third class.

He spent the Long Vacation at Whitby, reading Mathematics with Professor Price.
His work bore good fruit, for in October he obtained First Class Honours in the Final Mathematical School.
"I am getting quite tired of being congratulated on various subjects," he writes; "there seems to be no end of it.
If I had shot the Dean I could hardly have had more said about it."

In another letter dated December 13th, he says:

Enclosed you will find a list which I expect you to rejoice over considerably; it will take me more than a day to believe it, I expect—I feel at present very like a child with a new toy, but I daresay I shall be tired of it soon, and wish to be Pope of Rome next....
I have just been to Mr.
Price to see how I did in the papers, and the result will I hope be gratifying to you.
The following were the sums total for each in the First Class, as nearly as I can remember:—

Dodgson   ...   ...   ...
279

Bosanquet ...   ...   ...
261

Cookson  ...   ...   ...  254

Fowler   ...   ...   ...  225

Ranken   ...   ...   ...  213    

He also said he never remembered so good a set of men in.
All this is very satisfactory.
I must also add (this is a very boastful letter) that I ought to get the senior scholarship next term....
One thing more I will add, to crown all, and that is, I find I am the next First Class Mathematical Student to Faussett (with the exception of Kitchin who has given up Mathematics), so that I stand next (as Bosanquet is going to leave) for the Lectureship.

On December 18th he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and on October 15, 1855, he was made a "Master of the House," in honour of the appointment of the new Dean (Dr.
Liddell) who succeeded Dean Gaisford.
To be made Master of the House means that a man has all the privileges of a Master of Arts within the walls of Christ Church.
But he must be of a certain number of terms' standing, and be admitted in due form by the Vice-Chancellor, before he is a Master of Arts of the University.
In this wider sense Mr.
Dodgson did not take his Master's degree until 1857.

This is anticipating events, and there is much to tell of the year 1855, which was a very eventful one for him.
On February 15th he was made Sub-Librarian.
"This will add £35 to my income," he writes, "not much towards independence."
For he was most anxious to have a sufficient income to make him his own master, that he might enter on the literary and artistic career of which he was already dreaming.
On May 14th he wrote in his Diary: "The Dean and Canons have been pleased to give me one of the Bostock scholarships, said to be worth £20 a year—this very nearly raises my income this year to independence.
Courage!"

His college work, during 1855, was chiefly taking private pupils, but he had, in addition, about three and a half hours a day of lecturing during the last term of the year.
He did not, however, work as one of the regular staff of lecturers until the next year.
From that date his work rapidly increased, and he soon had to devote regularly as much as seven hours a day to delivering lectures, to say nothing of the time required for preparing them.

The following extract from his Journal, June 22, 1855, will serve to show his early love for the drama.
The scene is laid at the Princess' Theatre, then at the height of its glory:—

The evening began with a capital farce, "Away with Melancholy," and then came the great play, "Henry VIII.," the greatest theatrical treat I ever had or ever expect to have.
I had no idea that anything so superb as the scenery and dresses was ever to be seen on the stage.
Kean was magnificent as Cardinal Wolsey, Mrs.
Kean a worthy successor to Mrs.
Siddons as Queen Catherine, and all the accessories without exception were good—but oh, that exquisite vision of Queen Catherine's!
I almost held my breath to watch: the illusion is perfect, and I felt as if in a dream all the time it lasted.
It was like a delicious reverie, or the most beautiful poetry.
This is the true end and object of acting—to raise the mind above itself, and out of its petty cares.
Never shall I forget that wonderful evening, that exquisite vision—sunbeams broke in through the roof, and gradually revealed two angel forms, floating in front of the carved work on the ceiling: the column of sunbeams shone down upon the sleeping queen, and gradually down it floated, a troop of angelic forms, transparent, and carrying palm branches in their hands: they waved these over the sleeping queen, with oh!
such a sad and solemn grace.
So could I fancy (if the thought be not profane) would real angels seem to our mortal vision, though doubtless our conception is poor and mean to the reality.
She in an ecstasy raises her arms towards them, and to sweet slow music, they vanish as marvellously as they came.
Then the profound silence of the audience burst at once into a rapture of applause; but even that scarcely marred the effect of the beautiful sad waking words of the Queen, "Spirits of peace, where are ye?"
I never enjoyed anything so much in my life before; and never felt so inclined to shed tears at anything fictitious, save perhaps at that poetical gem of Dickens, the death of little Paul.

On August 21st he received a long letter from his father, full of excellent advice on the importance to a young man of saving money:—

I will just sketch for you [writes the Archdeacon] a supposed case, applicable to your own circumstances, of a young man of twenty-three, making up his mind to work for ten years, and living to do it, on an Income enabling him to save £150 a year—supposing him to appropriate it thus:—

£    s.    d.

Invested at 4 per cent.
...  ...
100    0     0

Life Insurance of £1,500     ...  29   15     0

Books, besides those bought in

ordinary course ...     ...  ...  20    5     0

_____________

£150    0     0

Suppose him at the end of the ten years to get a Living enabling him to settle, what will be the result of his savings:— 1.
A nest egg of £1,220 ready money, for furnishing and other expenses.
2.
A sum of £1,500 secured at his death on payment of a
very much
smaller annual Premium than if he had then begun to insure it.
3.
A useful Library, worth more than £200, besides the books bought out of his current Income during the period....

The picture on the opposite page is one of Mr.
Dodgson's illustrations in
Misch-Masch,
a periodical of the nature of
The Rectory Umbrella
, except that it contained printed stories and poems by the editor, cut out of the various newspapers to which he had contributed them.
Of the comic papers of that day
Punch,
of course, held the foremost place, but it was not without rivals; there was a certain paper called
Diogenes
, then very near its end, which imitated
Punch's
style, and in 1853 the proprietor of
The Illustrated News
, at that time one of the most opulent publishers in London, started
The Comic Times.
A capable editor was found in Edmund Yates; "Phiz" and other well-known artists and writers joined the staff, and 100,000 copies of the first number were printed.