LEWIS CARROLL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 35, 4 November 1933, Page 22

LEWIS CARROLL

Alice and the “White Rabbit” MEMORIAL UNVEILED - Mr. Lloyd George, in the presence of thousands of visitors and residents, unveiled a memorial at West Shore, Llandudno, to the memory of Lewis Carroll. The memorial, the work of Mr. F. W. Forrester, a local sculptor, depicts the White Rabbit, watch in hand, and a tablet beneath records that on that shore, during happy rambles with Dean Liddell’s little daughter Alice, Lewis Carroll was inspired to write “Alice in Wonderland.” Speaking in the Llandudno Pier Pavilion at the opening of an “Alice in Wonderland” Pageant Mr. Lloyd George said the world was happier today because Lewis Carroll passed through it. The immortal “Alice in Wonderland” was one of those rare books the very phrases and characters of which had entered into the currency of the English language. Mr. Lloyd George quoted from the book the Queen’s rule that prison and punishment should come first, trial should follow, and the commission of crime come last. It might sound grotesque, but they would not have thought that a great European country would be ruled very largely on that principle to-day. Lewis Carroll saw the possibility of even that happening, and he wrote it as if it were something he had seen in his Wonderland. Lewis Carroll’s Logic. One must be attracted by Carroll’s specimens of logic, his irrelevant and inconsequent answers, which remind one of an argument between a man and a woman. He charmed children of all ages. Under a cloak of delightful nonsense there was the richest and the ripest of wisdom. The world since 1862 had joined in the laughter and the merriment of these rambles on the shores of Llandudno, and the paths trodden in Wonderland for the first time by the little feet of Alice were now thronged by multitudes of children and men in all climes. Mr. Lloyd George said he regretted that Alice was not present. They owed her a debt of eternal gratitude. The book might never have been written but for her. She revealed to Lewis Carroll the truth that the key held by a childish hand fitted best the door of Wonderland. He loved children. His book was the overflow from a heart which loved childhood with tlie tenderness of his great Master. These books were a bubbling fountain of perennial delight to young and old. They were a pure joy. There was not a germ in them of that poison that fermented mischief in life and character. There was no corrosive acid to inflict pain. It was limpid, exhilarating joy in every sentence. Mr. Lloyd George said he pitied the person who had not read “Alice.” It was the best cure for melancholy and

bad temper. Lewis Carroll radiated happiness. He had a happy life and he was anxious to pass on the happiness to others. He once said, “My life is so free from all trial and trouble that I feel happiness is a talent given me to make other lives happy.” Mrs. Hargreaves’s Message. A letter was read from Mrs. Alice Hargreaves, the original of “Alice,” who wrote: —“I feel very real regret that I cannot be with you all at the unveiling of the memorial to that wonderful friend of my childhood, Lewis Carroll, but increasing age makes physical adventures in Wonderland more and more difficult, though my mental adventure will never close so long as there are people like all of you at Llandudno to honour that teacher, who, by his logical nonsense, has added to the pleasure of thousands. I still have the happiest memories of Penmorfa, as my father’s house in Llandudno was then called, and of the rambles over the Great Orme’s Head and among the Llandudno sandhills. I wish I could come personally, in gratitude for those joyous days and for the days spent with Mr. Dodgson.” Nearly 100 children from Llandudno junior schools presented in the pageant five episodes from “Alice in Wonderland,” after which a procession went to the West Shore, where the memorial was unveiled within sight of the house where the Liddells used to spend the summer.