The Story of Lewis Carroll Part 8

The picture that this letter gives of the famous writer and learned mathematician obviously rather in terror of some pert young lady fresh from the schoolroom is not without its comic side. One cannot help imagining that the girl must have been very young indeed, for if he were alive to-day there are few ladies of any state who would not feel honoured by the presence of Charles Dodgson.

However, he was not always so unfortunate in his experience of great people, and the following letter, written when he was staying with Lord Salisbury at Hatfield House, tells delightfully of his little royal friends, the d.u.c.h.ess of Albany's children:

"HATFIELD HOUSE, HATFIELD, "HERTS, _June 8, '89_."

"MY DARLING ISA,--I hope this will find you, but I haven't yet had any letter from _Fulham_, so I can't be sure if you have yet got into your new house.

"This is Lord Salisbury's house (he is the father, you know, of that Lady Maud Wolmer that we had luncheon with): I came yesterday, and I'm going to stay until Monday. It is such a nice house to stay in! They let one do just as one likes--it isn't 'Now you must do some geography! now it's time for your sums!' the sort of life _some_ little girls have to lead when they are so foolish as to visit friends--but one can just please one's own dear self.

"There are some sweet little children staying in the house. Dear little 'w.a.n.g' is here with her mother. By the way, _I_ made a mistake in telling you what to call her. She is 'the Honourable Mabel _Palmer_'--'Palmer' is the family name: 'Wolmer' is the _t.i.tle_, just as the _family_ name of Lord Salisbury is 'Cecil,' so that his daughter was Lady Maud Cecil, till she married.

"Then there is the d.u.c.h.ess of Albany here, with two such sweet little children. She is the widow of Prince Leopold (the Queen's youngest son), so her children are a Prince and Princess: the girl is 'Alice,'

but I don't know the boy's Christian name: they call him 'Albany,'

because he is the Duke of Albany. Now that I have made friends with a real live little Princess, I don't intend ever to _speak_ to any more children that haven't any t.i.tles. In fact, I'm so proud, and I hold my chin so high, that I shouldn't even _see_ you if we met! No, darlings, you mustn't believe _that_. If I made friends with a _dozen_ Princesses, I would love you better than all of them together, even if I had them all rolled up into a sort of child-roly-poly.

"Love to Nellie and Emsie.--Your ever loving Uncle,

"C. L. D."

X X X X X X X

And now I think that I have done all that has been in my power to present Lewis Carroll to you in his most delightful aspect--as a friend to children. I have not pretended in any way to write an exhaustive life-story of the man who was so dear to me, but by the aid of the letters and the diaries that I have been enabled to publish, and by the few reminiscences that I have given you of Lewis Carroll as I knew him, I hope I have done something to bring still nearer to your hearts the memory of the greatest friend that children ever had.

Footnotes:

[1] This refers to my visit to America when, as a child, I played the little Duke of York in "Richard III."

[2] At this point the real child's answers begin, the three or four lines alone were written by Mr. Dodgson himself.--ED.