From Somewhere in Time

This very splendid teapot comes from Davenport's Tea Rooms in Cheshire. I've just thought about it because I have read about it in the latest edition of the Daresbury Lewis Carroll Society newsletter, which contains the news that Davenport's Alice Tea Rooms has won the prestigious Tea Guild award this year - and well deserved. It does great teas and cakes, and its owner is an Alice fan.

The Daresbury society is a "breakaway" or, perhaps more accurately, an independent Lewis Carroll society. It is based in Cheshire, the town of Carroll's birth. It is run by Keith Wright and it's always really interesting, as well as being brightly illustrated in colour. The society is quite active and they have a lot of fun. I went to one of their meetings a few years ago and toured some of the many sites associated with Carroll, who of course spent his childhood in Cheshire before moving on to Yorkshire.

The current issue, as well as giving news of Davenport and all the Society's news, has an interesting article on John Tenniel, a most interesting account of Lewis Carroll's birthday party last January 27th - Daresbury church has a new Lewis Carroll centre and they were astonished when a coachload of young French people turned up to the birthday event, all of them Carroll fans.

The society also sponsors a new "Alice" every year who is chosen from local children, and has an exciting time, as she is always being asked to meet local dignitaries and open events.

This edition contains a review of Kevin Moore's "Crocodiles and Cream" which was performed in Ripon Cathedral (where LC's dad was an archdeacon) and there's a piece on Auckland Castle, associated with an ancestor of Carroll's who was Bishop of Durham. There's more about Llandudno, an article about Alice in Crich tramway museum, a piece on 1930s Carroll parodies, and ... well, actually, a lot of things. If you think it sounds interesting, contact me via my feedback form and I'll pass your name on to Keith, who will add you to the mailing list.

Kath sent this from Disneyland California, thinking I'd be interested. I am - but what are these things? Playmobil? Lego? Some special Disney collectable?

Let me know if you know!

Yoshi from Japan has sent some more delightful Alice gifts. These beautiful cards (above and below) are by Tomomi Hasegawa







There's also a signed card by "Mimi". You can see more of "Mimi" here

This is my favourite of the "Alice" buttons - one day I must put them on a garment and wear them!

It's the Mad Hatter



And finally, not an "Alice" item but Totoro, of whom I am also fond.

If you're going to be in Stamford, Lincs, on 1st June, you'll surely need to attend the Mad Hatters Vintage Tea Party It's run by the Stamford Vintage Tea Party Society, no less.

And the beautiful violet teacup is from "Heather's Blog-o-Rama> - a blog with so much good stuff on it.

Here's something CURIOUS . A "Lewis Carroll style" treatment from Lush Spas.

It's called the Sound Bath. You eat some magic mushroom, drink some magic liquid....and relax to the sound of tuning forks, among other things. And I dare say there is some soap around too.

On the topic of tuning forks, here's tuning fork magic maestro David Roth to entertain you for a few minutes



I'm always surprised Lewis Carroll didn't practice magic. I would have thought it was right up his street.

I've been sent a very interesting book from Spain, called "The Hunted Snark." It was written by Arturo Valledor de Lozoya, and it's in Spanish and English (dual text). It is an interpretation of Carroll's famous poem.

I will be able to write more about this later - but let me just tell you too that Sr. Valledor de Lozoya is a wildlife expert and has also written a paper which I found most fascinating, about depictions of the white dodo on the island of Reunion.



So ... more later!

Some time ago, Dolls House Magazine contacted me to say they would be running a special Alice edition. They wanted to give away a copy of "The Mystery of Lewis Carroll." So I sent them a copy of the book and forgot about it.

Just yesterday I got a copy of the magazine in the mail. It's got all kinds of cool miniature stuff in it - and of course the giveaway.



If you like dolls houses, take a look here on how to subscribe to the magazine. If you're in the UK, you can get it in W.H. Smith.

Deep apologies for the photos! They were taken on my phone, since my camera is bust.

Some more charming Alice items from my friend Yoshi in Japan.

Postcards..including two toadstools...
.


and a wrapping cloth. The Japanese have a nice custom of wrapping some items in little cloths, and I shall find something appropriate to wrap in this one, which shows Alice and the toadstool.



And since this is the season for finding toadstools, I have put a toadstool at the top of this post. It was in a wood near the village of Hermitage, Berkshire.

According to London blogger "The Great Wen" an "Alice" chessboard hand painted by Sir John Tenniel has come up for sale.

I'm a bit sceptical myself, but without comparing the illustrations closely with these pen and ink drawings, I can't tell whether the newly discovered images are merely someone's copy of the Tenniel pics (complete with copy of Tenniel's monogram) or whether Tenniel chose to exactly copy his own illustrations of years before. The sketches on the chessboard have the easy lines that suggest they were done by a professional artist, but I am sure a lot will depend on the provenance of the board.

Anyway, click on the link to read more about it. Not to mention more about the "Alice Boutique" due to open in Cecil Court, which will be selling reproductions of the board at £3,500 each. I hope that they will remember the difference between the Red Queen and the White Queen before they get much further, don't you?

What is this below? A pawn? I don't remember this image but I am sure it will be in the illustrations somewhere.

Even all these years after Carroll's death, new items come to light. Edward Wakeling told me a few months ago about a cache of previously unknown Lewis Carroll memorabilia. He thought it overpriced, and I have to say it has been languishing on eBay for a while. You can click the link and see if it is still up! At the top of this post is one of the images from the listing.

To me the most interesting item in the collection was a previously unknown little poem by Carroll. It was the sort of thing he would write to amuse his friends - and, no doubt himself. I am usually struck by his clever use of language in these little poems, which he probably assumed would be ephemeral. He typically uses a severely limited selection of words but getting around the restrictions seem to entertain him.

This one is about whether or not to call his friend "Miss" or not. In Victorian days, even friends tended to call each other "Mr," "Mrs," or "Miss." Only children were called by their first names. The concept of teenagers was unknown - you were either a child or a grown up, but it was courteous to start calling girls "Miss" when they were in their early teens.

Edward Wakeling considers that this poem was written for Carroll's longtime friend Bessie Hussey, but if so it is slightly strange, because Bessie was 32 in 1884. when it was written. Carroll would normally have been calling her "Miss" for a long time. To me, this reads as if it is asddressed to a young teenager, but there again, perhaps this was some kind of a private joke between Carroll and Bessie Hussey.

Here it is.

Take not amiss this missile dread
Nor maim my mystic hopes
Miscalling me a much misled
Mistaken misanthrope!

My missive’s meant to murmur this
With mute mysterious touch
If I should merely miss the “Miss”
Would you, Miss, miss it much?