'"Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice.' A curious Old Carthusian link to Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
When Old Carthusian Henry Liddell (Watkinson's Boarding House 1823-1829) graduated from Charterhouse in May 1829, it was yet unknown that his daughter, Alice Pleasance Liddell, would become the muse for Lewis Carroll’s famous Victorian novel: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was conceived on 4 July 1862, when Lewis Carroll and Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed up the river Isis with the three young daughters of Carroll's friend Henry Liddell. The journey began at Folly Bridge, Oxford, and ended upstream at Godstow, Oxfordshire. During the trip, Carroll told the girls a story that he described in his diary as "Alice's Adventures Under Ground", which his journal says he "undertook to write out for Alice". [1]
Alice Liddell, aged 7, photographed by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1860
Cited from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell
Henry Liddell carved a perfectly compelling history in his own right, departing Charterhouse to study at Christ Church, Oxford. As co-author of Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, Headmaster (1846-1855) of Westminster School, Dean (1855-1891) of Christ Church Oxford and the Vice-Chancellor (1870-1874) of Oxford University, Liddell’s accolades and influence were of great significance.
Charterhouse’s curious and historic connection to this remarkable family deepens further, as our very own John Witheridge (Headmaster 1996 - 2013) introduces his latest publication ‘Alice’s Father - The Life of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford’.
John Witheridge became Headmaster of Charterhouse in OQ (Autumn Term) 1996. He had previously been Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Conduct at Eton. He is the longest serving Charterhouse Headmaster after Frank Fletcher, the subject of his first biographical work. Witheridge, like Fletcher, arrived at a moment in the School’s history when a fine balance of stability with reform was needed. Throughout his headmastership, despite the many educational and social vicissitudes of our time, Witheridge’s Charterhouse was characterised by sustained success and renewal. Perhaps best put by Simon Robinson (H73), Chairman of the Governing Body at the time, ‘He will clearly go down in history as one of the School’s great headmasters.’
'Alice’s Father' is Witheridge’s fourth biography and can be found here: https://www.gracewing.co.uk/page325.html
Henry Liddell
Blurb Extract:
‘The father of Alice Liddell, the eponymous heroine of Alice in Wonderland, was a formidable Victorian and an important and influential figure in the annals of Oxford University.
Alongside his work at Christ Church, Liddell also undertook, with Robert Scott, the herculean task of compiling the celebrated Greek-English Lexicon known to generations of classicists as Liddell & Scott. He was also to exercise a significant role in the governance of the University itself, the Bodleian Library, the University Museum and Galleries, and the University Press.
Among those whom Liddell appointed at Christ Church was the mathematical lecturer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known today as the author Lewis Carroll. It was in the deanery garden that Dodgson first befriended and photographed the Liddell’s daughters, and it was at Christ Church that his celebrated Alice stories were written. Though the books were a source of pride to her parents, their relationship with Dodgson was often critical and strained. This biography explores the Liddell’s family life, and what it was like to live in the heart of the college favoured by princes and peers.’
References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
