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Lewis Carroll's Early Years |
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Charles Dodgson spent his first eleven years at Daresbury, a little village near Warrington. The parsonage at Daresbury, now demolished, was situated about two miles from the village. It was a rather remote and lonely spot and Charles had few friends outside his own family-even the passing of a farm-cart was a memorable event in the lives of the Dodgson children. But he had lots of pets including snails, toads and even earthworms with which he devised many games including mock battles for the entertainment of his brothers and sisters. Charles loved to climb trees and explore the old marl - pits of the district. And always he was on hand to help his beloved mother and to keep his brothers and sisters busy & happy playing the many simple but happy games which his inventive mind fashioned for them. It was a poor living at Daresbury and the Rev. Charles Dodgson was forced to supplement his income by giving private tuition to pupils. In addition he farmed the few acres attached to the vicarage. But he did much good work there helping the poor, establishing a Sunday School and tending to the needs of his flock including the many bargemen who worked on the nearby canal. These early years at Daresbury were to remain in Charles's storehouse of happy childhood memories. In 1860, seventeen years later he was to write in a poem called 'Faces in the Fire':
'An island-farm, mid seas of corn,
Swayed by the wandering breath of morn -
The happy spot where I was born.' |
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The Dodgsons move to Croft |
 In 1843 the Rev. Charles Dodgson obtained the living at Croft and the large family moved into the spacious rectory of St. Peter's. He was most happy in his new appointment, a lucrative crown living, for which he had been strongly recommended to Sir Robert Peel by Lord Francis Egerton, in appreciation of Dodgson's devoted work at Daresbury. At Daresbury the kindly, scholarly parson with the large family, had known many hardships and indeed near poverty. Now affairs had taken a sudden turn for the better - a handsome salary of £900 per annum, a most interesting and historic little church and a lovely roomy house set in a large garden in this pleasant Yorkshire village. And how the Dodgson children and their devoted mother loved their new home in this romantic rectory by the Tees. With its many rooms and its rambling grounds full of trees and flowers there was room at last for all to work or to play. The Rectory has changed little from those far-off days. Simple in design and many windowed it lies across the road from the little church surrounded by tall trees and looking exactly like a child's drawing of a big house. On the front lawn is that same acacia tree under which the Dodgson children used to play and the old yew tree which they called the umbrella tree, may still be seen to the left of the house. The great gardens at the back of the house have gone now and new houses have sprang up where once the rectory children played their games. |
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