During the year 1855 Carroll became interested in photography, a hobby which had suddenly become very popular since its feature in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Early in September Skeffington Lutwidge, Carroll’s uncle visited Croft. This uncle was a particular favourite of Charles and in many ways they were alike as both were inventive and extremely gadget conscious.

Skeffington arrived at the rectory loaded with heavy and elaborate paraphernalia necessary to take pictures of the church, the rectory and the bridge but they were not very successful. As his uncle did not obtain the complete photographic outfit requested by his nephew, in the spring of 1856 Charles bought his first camera costing £15 and soon bought the extras necessary to complete his outfit.

Photography became his chief pastime and through it he was able to extend his social life which had so far been restricted owing to his abrupt shyness. Now people clamoured to make his acquaintance in order to be photographed for amusement or posterity!

At Croft Charles took many pictures of his father and his brothers and sisters. He also photographed many local people especially the local gentry but still found time to take pictures of local girls of ‘humbler stock’. One of his most famous portraits was taken in the rectory garden, a little girl, Grace Agnes Weld, dressed as ‘Little Red Riding  Hood’.  She  was  the  niece  of  Lord  Tennyson  and because of this picture Charles was able to photograph other members of the poet’s family including Lord and Lady Tennyson themselves. However Carroll is chiefly known to posterity for his portraits of little girls and is now rightly regarded as the foremost children’s photographer of the 19th century.

Lewis Carroll also paid many visits to Ripon during these years and he stayed with his father who was acting as Canon Residuary – an office he fulfilled for three months each year. Here Charles photographed the cathedral and was intensely interested in the little carvings on the stalls in it’s interior - fascinating monsters and creatures like Mr Somebody and Mr Nobody, a lion fighting a griffin, a pig playing bagpipes, a dragon, a monkey, an elephant on a turtle – further ideas for the peculiar characters he was already shaping in his mind for ‘Alice’?

Alice Liddell, posing as a beggar girl.
The original Alice & daughter of
Dr H G Liddell. Dean of Christ Church.