Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (256 page)

Reading Station,

April
13, 1878.

My dear Gertrude,—As I have to wait here for half an hour, I have been studying Bradshaw (most things, you know, ought to be studied: even a trunk is studded with nails), and the result is that it seems I could come, any day next week, to Winckfield, so as to arrive there about one; and that, by leaving Winckfield again about half-past six, I could reach Guildford again for dinner.
The next question is,
How far is it from Winckfield to Rotherwick
?
Now do not deceive me, you wretched child!
If it is more than a hundred miles, I can't come to see you, and there is no use to talk about it.
If it is less, the next question is,
How much less?
These are serious questions, and you must be as serious as a judge in answering them.
There mustn't be a smile in your pen, or a wink in your ink (perhaps you'll say, "There can't be a
wink
in
ink
: but there
may
be
ink
in a
wink
"—but this is trifling; you mustn't make jokes like that when I tell you to be serious) while you write to Guildford and answer these two questions.
You might as well tell me at the same time whether you are still living at Rotherwick—and whether you are at home—and whether you get my letter—and whether you're still a child, or a grown-up person—and whether you're going to the seaside next summer—and anything else (except the alphabet and the multiplication table) that you happen to know.
I send you 10,000,000 kisses, and remain.

Your loving friend,

C.
L.
Dodgson.

The Chestnuts, Guildford,

April
19, 1878.

My dear Gertrude,—I'm afraid it's "no go"—I've had such a bad cold all the week that I've hardly been out for some days, and I don't think it would be wise to try the expedition this time, and I leave here on Tuesday.
But after all, what does it signify?
Perhaps there are ten or twenty gentlemen, all living within a few miles of Rotherwick, and any one of them would do just as well!
When a little girl is hoping to take a plum off a dish, and finds that she can't have that one, because it's bad or unripe, what does she do?
Is she sorry, or disappointed?
Not a bit!
She just takes another instead, and grins from one little ear to the other as she puts it to her lips!
This is a little fable to do you good; the little girl means
you
—the bad plum means
me
—the other plum means some other friend—and all that about the little girl putting plums to her lips means—well, it means—but you know you can't expect
every bit
of a fable to mean something!
And the little girl grinning means that dear little smile of yours, that just reaches from the tip of one ear to the tip of the other!

Your loving friend,

C.L.
Dodgson.

I send you 4—3/4 kisses.

The next letter is a good example of the dainty little notes Lewis Carroll used to scribble off on any scrap of paper that lay to his hand:—

Chestnuts, Guildford,

January
15, 1886.

Yes, my child, if all be well, I shall hope, and you may fear, that the train reaching Hook at two eleven, will contain

Your loving friend,

C.L.
Dodgson.

Only a few years ago, illness prevented him from fulfilling his usual custom of spending Christmas with his sisters at Guildford.
This is the allusion in the following letter:—

My dear old Friend,—(The friendship is old, though the child is young.) I wish a very happy New Year, and many of them, to you and yours; but specially to you, because I know you best and love you most.
And I pray God to bless you, dear child, in this bright New Year, and many a year to come.
...
I write all this from my sofa, where I have been confined a prisoner for six weeks, and as I dreaded the railway journey, my doctor and I agreed that I had better not go to spend Christmas with my sisters at Guildford.
So I had my Christmas dinner all alone, in my room here, and (pity me, Gertrude!) it wasn't a Christmas dinner at all—I suppose the cook thought I should not care for roast beef or plum pudding, so he sent me (he has general orders to send either fish and meat, or meat and pudding) some fried sole and some roast mutton!
Never, never have I dined before, on Christmas Day, without
plum pudding
.
Wasn't it sad?
Now I think you must be content; this is a longer letter than most will get.
Love to Olive.
My clearest memory of her is of a little girl calling out "Good-night" from her room, and of your mother taking me in to see her in her bed, and wish her good-night.
I have a yet clearer memory (like a dream of fifty years ago) of a little bare-legged girl in a sailor's jersey, who used to run up into my lodgings by the sea.
But why should I trouble you with foolish reminiscences of
mine
that
cannot
interest you?

Yours always lovingly,

C.
L.
Dodgson.

It was a writer in
The National Review
who, after eulogising the talents of Lewis Carroll, and stating that
he
would never be forgotten, added the harsh prophecy that "future generations will not waste a single thought upon the Rev.
C.L.
Dodgson."

If this prediction is destined to be fulfilled, I think my readers will agree with me that it will be solely on account of his extraordinary diffidence about asserting himself.
But such an unnatural division of Lewis Carroll, the author, from the Rev.
C.L.
Dodgson, the man, is forced in the extreme.
His books are simply the expression of his normal habit of mind, as these letters show.
In literature, as in everything else, he was absolutely natural.

To refer to such criticisms as this (I am thankful to say they have been very few) is not agreeable; but I feel that it is owing to Mr.
Dodgson to do what I can to vindicate the real unity which underlay both his life and all his writings.

Of many anecdotes which might be adduced to show the lovable character of the man, the following little story has reached me through one of his child-friends:—

My sister and I [she writes] were spending a day of delightful sightseeing in town with him, on our way to his home at Guildford, where we were going to pass a day or two with him.
We were both children, and were much interested when he took us into an American shop where the cakes for sale were cooked by a very rapid process before your eyes, and handed to you straight from the cook's hands.
As the preparation of them could easily be seen from outside the window, a small crowd of little ragamuffins naturally assembled there, and I well remember his piling up seven of the cakes on one arm, and himself taking them out and doling them round to the seven hungry little youngsters.
The simple kindness of his act impressed its charm on his child-friends inside the shop as much as on his little stranger friends outside.

It was only to those who had but few personal dealings with him that he seemed stiff and "donnish"; to his more intimate acquaintances, who really understood him, each little eccentricity of manner or of habits was a delightful addition to his charming and interesting personality.
That he was, in some respects, eccentric cannot be denied; for instance he hardly ever wore an overcoat, and always wore a tall hat, whatever might be the climatic conditions.
At dinner in his rooms small pieces of cardboard took the place of table-mats; they answered the purpose perfectly well, he said, and to buy anything else would be a mere waste of money.
On the other hand, when purchasing books for himself, or giving treats to the children he loved, he never seemed to consider expense at all.

He very seldom sat down to write, preferring to stand while thus engaged.
When making tea for his friends, he used, in order, I suppose, to expedite the process, to walk up and down the room waving the teapot about, and telling meanwhile those delightful anecdotes of which he had an inexhaustible supply.

Great were his preparations before going a journey; each separate article used to be carefully wrapped up in a piece of paper all to itself, so that his trunks contained nearly as much paper as of the more useful things.
The bulk of the luggage was sent on a day or two before by goods train, while he himself followed on the appointed day, laden only with his well-known little black bag, which he always insisted on carrying himself.

He had a strong objection to staring colours in dress, his favourite combination being pink and grey.
One little girl who came to stay with him was absolutely forbidden to wear a red frock, of a somewhat pronounced hue, while out in his company.

At meals he was very abstemious always, while he took nothing in the middle of the day except a glass of wine and a biscuit.
Under these circumstances it is not very surprising that the healthy appetites of his little friends filled him with wonder, and even with alarm.
When he took a certain one of them out with him to a friend's house to dinner, he used to give the host or hostess a gentle warning, to the mixed amazement and indignation of the child, "Please be careful, because she eats a good deal too much."

Another peculiarity, which I have already referred to, was his objection to being invited to dinners or any other social gatherings; he made a rule of never accepting invitations.
"Because you have invited me, therefore I cannot come," was the usual form of his refusal.
I suppose the reason of this was his hatred of the interference with work which engagements of this sort occasion.

He had an extreme horror of infection, as will appear from the following illustration.
Miss Isa Bowman and her sister, Nellie, were at one time staying with him at Eastbourne, when news came from home that their youngest sister had caught the scarlet fever.
From that day every letter which came from Mrs.
Bowman to the children was held up by Mr.
Dodgson, while the two little girls, standing at the opposite end of the room, had to read it as best they could.
Mr.
Dodgson, who was the soul of honour, used always to turn his head to one side during these readings, lest he might inadvertently see some words that were not meant for his eyes.

Some extracts from letters of his to a child-friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, follow:

November
30, 1879.

I have been awfully busy, and I've had to write
heaps
of letters—wheelbarrows full, almost.
And it tires me so that generally I go to bed again the next minute after I get up: and sometimes I go to bed again a minute
before
I get up!
Did you ever hear of any one being so tired as
that?
...

November
7, 1882.

My dear E—, How often you must find yourself in want of a pin!
For instance, you go into a shop, and you say to the man, "I want the largest penny bun you can let me have for a halfpenny."
And perhaps the man looks stupid, and doesn't quite understand what you mean.
Then how convenient it is to have a pin ready to stick into the back of his hand, while you say, "Now then!
Look sharp, stupid!"...
and even when you don't happen to want a pin, how often you think to yourself, "They say Interlacken is a very pretty place.
I wonder what it looks like!"
(That is the place that is painted on this pincushion.)

When you don't happen to want either a pin or pictures, it may just remind you of a friend who sometimes thinks of his dear little friend E—, and who is just now thinking of the day he met her on the parade, the first time she had been allowed to come out alone to look for him....

December
26, 1886.

My dear E—, Though rushing, rapid rivers roar between us (if you refer to the map of England, I think you'll find that to be correct), we still remember each other, and feel a sort of shivery affection for each other....