Topics of historical interest
General: History
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How Oxford's spires (and pints in a local pub) helped inspire Tolkien's Middle Earth
The original tea party on an Oxford riverbank inspires a beloved fantasy realm
Topics of historical interest
How Oxford's spires (and pints in a local pub) helped inspire Tolkien's Middle Earth
The original tea party on an Oxford riverbank inspires a beloved fantasy realm
Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church College from the 1850s to 1891, had a duaghter in 1852 he named Alice Pleasance Liddell. The Liddell family struck up a friendship with a mathematics professor named Charles Dodgson, who would regale the Liddell sisters with elaborate fantasy tales on their boating trips down Oxford's rivers. Little Alice begged Dodgson to write some of them down, and he did, using the pename Lewis Carroll, casting a precocious seven-year old girl named "Allice" as the protagonist, and eventually publishing Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.
Alice Liddell, Age 7
Alice Liddell, age 20
Alice Pleasance Liddell Hargreaves, age 80
