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Featured Item for April- Lewis Carroll At Home Letter
Letter from C.L. Dodgson [Lewis Carroll] to Miss Elizabeth Wordsworth declining an invitation to an “At Home.”
May 24, 1889
The letter, headed Ch.Ch. [Christ Church] and written in purple ink, reads:
“Mr C.L. Dodgson is most grateful, but confesses that no bribe, at all likely to be offered, would induce him to attend an “at Home.” Carroll made a point of avoiding “At Homes” in which hosts would designate a time for visiting—having said on another occasion, “I dread and shun all such hosts of strangers.”
The abbreviation, F.R.J.V., in the letter’s lower right-hand corner stands for “Je répond tout vite” and means “I am replying very quickly.”
Elizabeth Wordsworth (1840–1932), the great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth, was the founder of Lady Margaret Hall, the first women’s college in Oxford.The abbreviation, F.R.J.V., in the letter’s lower right-hand corner stands for “Je répond tout vite” and means “I am replying very quickly.”
Exhibit Item 10.14