Anyone who knows anything about the wonderful mind of Lewis Carroll will know that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, to give him his real name, had a mind that was able to cope with the nonsensical as well as the normal. With that in mind, it is perhaps no surprise that he had an association with Guildford, even if it was largely only fleeting. It came courtesy of his sister, who lived in the town, spending time in the area and actually dying and being buried in Guildford in January of 1898.
Who Is Lewis Carroll?
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in the Cheshire town of Daresbury on the 27th of January, 1832. He grew up in a family that was mainly northern English and was part of the Anglican Church, with the majority of his family being either members of the armed forces or else in the clergy. He was the third-oldest of 11 children, moving around the country with his family as his father was asked to become the vicar of numerous different towns and villages around the United Kingdom.
He was educated at Rugby School before attending the University of Oxford at Christ Church College. He showed great promise as a student but was also easily distracted; something that would later come through in his writing. Considered to be personally, politically and religiously conservative, there is an extent to which that flies in the fact of the characters that he would go on to create as an author. He wrote poetry and short stories as a youngester, with his work appearing in national publications.
It was using his pen name that he became famous, with the words of ‘Lewis Carroll’ first appearing in a publication called The Train thanks to a romantic poem entitled ‘Solitude’. In 1865 he published the first novel that would make him one of the best-known authors for generations to come, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which became incredibly successful commercially. He published the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, in 1871.
His Time in Guildford
Obviously the exact movements of someone in the 19th century are hard to track, but we do know that a young-looking clergyman arrived in Guildford for the first time on the 14th of August, 1868. He was 36-years-old at the time, looking for a house that he could spend some of the riches that he earned from his first novel on. Because of the death of his father earlier in the year, Charles Dodgson had become the head of the family and was responsible for looking for a home for his six sisters, who were unmarried.
Quite why the family decided to look for somewhere to live in Guildford is a mystery that will stand the test of time, but it is more than possible that it was owing to the friendship that Dodgson had struck up with the Reverend G.R. Portal whilst the two were students at Rugby School. Portal was the Rector of Albury, a village around five miles from Guildford, meaning that they could spend time with each other without having to live out of one another’s pockets.
The Dodgson family moved in to a house called The Chestnuts, close to the ruins of Guildford Castle, by the November, which remained associated with the family until the last Misses Dodgson gave up residency there in 1919. As a Don and Mathematics lecturer at Christchurch College, Oxford, Dodgson himself never actually called Guildford his home, but he spend plenty of time visiting his sisters and The Chestnuts was taken in his own name, meaning that his parliamentary vote was in Guildford.
His diaries showed that he would regularly spend days at a time in the village, including several weeks over Christmas each year. Other family members also lived at The Chestnuts from time to time, such as his youngest brother Edwin. In addition to the Portals, the Dodgsons also knew other families in the area, making more friends the longer that they lived in the village and spent time getting to know their neighbours and others who had houses nearby.
Being Laid to Rest in Guildford
Charles Dodgson was fond of walking, strolling for 20 miles or more even towards the end of his life. He could often be seen traipsing over the Downs of Guildford when he was visiting, taking inspiration for his nonsensical masterpiece The Hunting of the Snark from his wanders. His sisters were all active in charitable work, often being involved with the goings on at the local churches, with both St Mary’s Church and St Nicolas being visited by one or more of them.
In 1895, Dodgson’s heath began to go downhill, perhaps because of the fact that he was always pushing himself to do more and more. Having retired 14 years earlier, there was no let up in his activities and he continued to live in his rooms at Christchurch, meaning that he was regularly travelling between there and Guildford to see his family. It was during one such visit in the Christmas of 1897 that his heath became even worse on account of the fact that he caught influenza.
He was doted upon by his sisters who took care of his every need, but they could do little to help him and his health deteriorated even further. He died on the 14th of January 1898, just two weeks before he would have celebrated his 66th birthday. A funeral service was held for him at St Mary’s Church, after which he was buried in the cemetery on The Mount. His grave is located just inside the gate, with his brothers and sisters erecting a memorial cross in his name. Many of his family members are buried in the same cemetery.