Lewis Carroll Flashcards
Origins
Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 27 January 1832, in Daresbury, Cheshire. Father Charles Dodgson, Archdeacon of Richmond in North Yorkshire (also Croft-on-Tees). A family of High Church Anglicans.
Born with a stammer, gentle but would stick up for himself and other small boys.
Went to school
Early schooling was at Richmond School North Yorkshire (has a plaque on it re this). He then went on to Rugby and finally the University of Oxford, where he graduated as a Mathematician with 1st Class honours.
Interests
Enjoyed writing short stories and his memorable poetic work is classified as Literary Nonsense - literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not.
Most famous books
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There’.
Works associated with Whitby
‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ poem in ‘Through the Looking Glass’, inspired by his stay here and there was a tea room once called that in the market square.
Where he stayed during his six visits to Whitby 1854 - 1871
5 East Terrace, now the La Rosa Hotel and tea room, which is decorated in Victorian style and where you can stay or buy a dish of tea and cakes in the tearoom!
Why was he in Whitby
Came as a mathematics lecturer to teach at lectures being given in the town by Christ Church College Oxford.
What he used to do here
According to a colleague Thomas Fowler, he used to ‘sit it on a rock on the beach to a circle of eager young listeners of both sexes’ - texting the water for his story and poems and a possible part of the genesis of his famous stories?
His first published work happened here in 1854
The Lady of the Ladle - in the local paper still existent today, The Whitby Gazette. It refers to the town and the prominent Royal Hotel (built in 1848 byGeorge Hudson)
Supernatural involvement?
Like the other writers, probably influenced by the type and character of Whitby’s ghosts and superstations - The Barguest Dog (Garmr).
The Jabberwocky in his Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871), may be look back to Viking and Saxon folklore and the dragon in Beowulf these ancient poems, which he may have come across at Whitby Library/Lit and Phil due to Whitby’s ancient Saxon and viking history?
He joined the Society for Psychical Research when it was first formed in 1882 (I’m a member also) along with Mark Twain and authored a humorous poem in that vein (pun intended) in 1869, titled ‘Phantasmagoria’, an A-Z of ghosts and hauntings, a manual of ghosts, the full text is available at the pink monkey website. (consider reciting this short poem to the audience).
The Drummer boy of Richmond connection?
Whilst at school in Richmond he would have been told a local ghost story about an army drummer boy, possibly 18th century or earlier, who went down a tunnel the entrance of which was apparently in some secret nook in Richmond Castle, this at the insistence of his soldier brethren.
They believed they could follow him above ground whilst they listened out for his drum and did so for a reasonable distance. But suddenly his underground drumming stopped somewhere outside the town and he was never seen again. Legends are various, one being that he eventually came to a cave where King Arthur and his nights slept and elected to lie with them until England was in its greatest danger, than they and he would rise and face this deadliest of foes.
The tunnel may have been a similar one to that allegedly located n Guisborough under the old priory where a monk is said to have buried treasure.
I believe that Dodgson remembers this tale and consciously or unconsciously (an itch at the back of his mind), made it the key reason for Alice going down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.
There is a display board above the town that recounts the story which you can go an see for yourself.
If you get a chance to go to the church where Dodgson’s father preached at, Croft-on-Tees and is buried, you can see a stone cat on the wall that is may well have been the inspiration for the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
