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By 1856 Charles was a lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church with a salary of over £300 per year. He was also a Sub-Librarian of the college and private tuition added considerably to his income. The Dean of his college was Dr. H.G. Liddell who was born at Binchester near Bishop Auckland and who was a nephew of Baron Ravensworth. Charles was contributing fairly regularly to several magazines notably ‘The Train’. Because of his free-lance activities he felt the need for a pen-name and Lewis Carroll was finally chosen. In 1861 Lewis Carroll was ordained as a Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford. He might have then followed the family pattern of marriage and settling down as a parish priest. But the curse of stammering which he was unable to cure, remained a stumbling block. Although he was capable of delivering wonderful, inspiring lessons from the pulpit there was the constant fear that at some critical point the stammering would make him an object of ridicule. He did however conduct several baptisms at Croft in 1863 and 1864 and enjoyed taking Sunday School lessons. An attempt too, to teach in a part-time appointment at St. Aldate’s School, Oxford, ended disastrously after only three weeks. He found the boys difficult to control, noisy & inattentive and his uncertain stammering manner was the target for some of their cruel pranks. He said afterwards that he would not teach boys for £10,000 pounds a year and his slight distaste for little boys probably sprang from this unhappy experience. He was always happier in the company of little girls. |
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There is scarcely a mention of a single little boy who played any significant part in Carroll’s life. Dean Liddell and his wife had three charming small daughters: Lorina. Alice & Edith and Lewis obtained permission to use them as models for his photography. During the warm sunny days he liked to take the three girls boating on the River Thames at Oxford, rowing them to picnic spots where he would tell them stories. On July 4th 1862 the first of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground was told and received with great appreciation by the three girls. Carroll had promised them that he would write out the stories and collect them into a book. When he had done so he was persuaded by George Macdonald a writer of children’s stories, that they were worthy of publication. He sent the story off to Mr Macmillan and the publisher accepted it immediately. It was published with illustrations by John Tinniel in the summer of 1865 and on July 4th, exactly three years after their river trip, a special beautifully bound volume of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ was delivered to Miss Alice Liddell at the Deanery in Christ Church. By the time of Carroll’s death about 200,000 copies had been sold. Since then the sales have run into many millions. Other books followed including ‘Through the Looking Glass‘ 1871 but none achieved any outstanding popularity. |
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The Dodgson Family leave the North |
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In June 1868 Carroll’s father, the Rev. Charles Dodgson died at Croft and once more the grieving family stood around the grave in the shadow of the quiet little church by the River Tees. Carroll felt his father’s loss very keenly. They had been close to each other for many years and with his death his happy association with Croft was now to end. The lovely old rectory which he had loved so much during his formative years had now to be vacated and provision had to be made for his sisters. After much discussion he and his family decided to buy a large house in Guildford, Surrey and on September 1st 1868 they said farewell to Croft and all that it had meant to them. From ‘Lewis Carroll Around the North’ by Brenda Dane Matheson |
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