Footnotes

• LEWIS CARROLL RULES THE CHRIST CHURCH COMMON ROOM: Dodgson had been elected Curator of the Senior Common Room in December 1882. He expended much time and energy on the various curatorial responsibilities, keeping the Roll of Members in good order and maintaining a suitable wine-list (he introduced a temperature-controlled cellar); he also ensured that afternoon tea was provided when required, arranged for the Common Room fireplace to be tiled (by William De Morgan) and even ensured the smooth functioning of the lavatories. He remained Curator for nine years, until March 1892: the office he had once welcomed as a means of escaping life as 'a selfish recluse' had become excessively burdensome. His tenure even gave rise to three minor literary productions, Twelve Months in a Curatorship by One Who Has Tried It (1884), Three Years in a Curatorship by One Whom It Has Tried (1886), and Curiosissima Curatoria (1892), an amiable anthology of Common Room resolutions and other miscellanea produced as a parting-gift. In late 1889, the Senior Common Room consisted of about 40 resident members, comprising Students (the Christ Church equivalent to fellows), Chaplains, and MA's, who paid 10s 6d a Quarter, and about 400 non-resident members (MA's), who paid just 1s a Quarter. Dodgson's correspondent was presumably a non-resident MA. This letter is not printed in The Letters of Lewis Carroll, edited by Morton N. Cohen (1979). See illustration on preceding page.

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Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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