Chapter 28: Harry & Alice: Two literary friends

“Curiouser and curiouser!”

(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The Great Hall at Christ Church College: inspiration for Lewis Carroll and a setting for the Harry Potter films. It wasn't open last time I was here, and as a life-long follower of Alice in Wonderland, and a recent convert to the Harry Potter stories, this is a must for me to see.

The Great Hall, or dining hall, built 1592, has many connections with Lewis Carroll and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. One of the windows is full of pictures of Alice and creatures from the book. Charles Lutwig Dodgson’s portrait hangs next to the centre doors at the rear. Dodgson went in January 1851 to Oxford, attending his father's old college.. Eventually, his talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he continued to hold for the next twenty-six years. The income was good, but the work bored him, and some say he was a poor teacher. Perhaps he sought to assuage that boredom with the fantasies of Alice and all the other Wonderland and Looking-Glass characters. Dodgson apparently loved the company of little girls, to whom he told many stories. He often wrote letters to them and if on a train journey or at the beach, he always made sure that he had plenty of games and puzzles with him in case he met a new little girl. Alice Liddell, the daughter of Christ Church College Dean Henry Liddell, was one of his favourites and was probably the inspiration for Alice.

Although interior scenes were not shot here, the Christ Church Hall was also the model for Hogwart’s Great Hall and was replicated for the films. It is not difficult to imagine the dining hall scenes from Harry Potter taking place here, the annual Sorting and the great Christmas tea! Several groups of school children are there today being told plenty about Harry Potter by their teachers and nothing about Oxford! (Note the hammerbeam ceiling, and the portraits of famous members of Christ Church, including a few of the thirteen Christ Church-educated Prime Ministers.)
My Acadia friends might recall that when I graduated from university I used my favourite text from Alice as the write-up in the AXE Yearbook:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.

"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master - - that's all.” (Through the Looking Glass)
After her marriage Alice Liddell lived in and around Lyndhurst in the New Forest, and is buried in the graveyard of the church of St. Michael & All Angels, Lyndhurst, a church I hope to visit when next in New Forest, to see the grave and the Pre-Raphaelite inspired church.

According to the guide, “The White Rabbit was based on Alice’s father the dean. He left dinner every night down a narrow spiral stair behind the raised ‘High Table.’”

“In that case,” said the Dodo solemnly, rising to his feet, “I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—“

“Speak English!” said the Duck, “I don't know the meaning of half of those long words, and what's more, I don't believe you do either!”

And the Duck quacked a comfortable laugh to itself. Some of the other birds tittered audibly.

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?” he asked.

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed “Off with her head! Off--”

“Nonsense!” said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent. The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said “Consider, my dear: she is only a child!”

Dodgson met the Henry Liddell family in 1855. He first befriended Harry, the older brother, and later took both Harry and Ina on several boating trips and picnics to the scenic areas around Oxford. Later, when Harry went to school, Alice and her younger sister Edith joined the party. Dodgson entertained the children by telling them fantastic stories to while away the time. Eventually, he collected and published these books under his pseudonym, LEWIS CARROLL. Many of the characters in the books were inspired by Christ Church people and objects.
He also used children as subjects for his hobby, photography, about which he became fascinated when it was still in its infancy (1856) and he was one of the best amateur photographers of his time. His photos of girls, especially Alice Liddell, have caused much speculation about whether or not he was a pedophile. There has also been much speculation about why a rift developed with the Liddell family, whether it was about the time he spent with the children, a suspected attraction to one of the girls (or the governess), or with Dean Liddell about College politics. Dodgson continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881, and remained in residence there until his death from pneumonia on 14 January 1898.
Christ Church’s more modern popular culture literary association is with J. K. Rowling’s first two Harry Potter films. Scenes were filmed outside on Tom Quad, and on the staircase with its fine fan-vaulted ceiling, one scene in particular showing Professor McGonnagal greeting Harry and the new first-year students at Hogwarts from these stairs:

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here your house will be like your family."

‘What is it you want to buy?’ the Sheep said at last, looking up for a moment from her knitting.

‘I don't quite know yet,' Alice said, very gently. I should like to look all round me first, if I might.’

‘You may look in front of you, and on both sides, if you like,’ said the Sheep: ‘but you can't look all round you -- unless you've got eyes at the back of your head.’

But these, as it happened, Alice had not got: so she contented herself with turning round, looking at the shelves as she came to them. The shop seemed to be full of all manner of curious things -- but the oddest part of it all was, that whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was always quite empty: though the others round it were crowded as full as they could hold.
Now a souvenir and collectibles shop for lovers of the Alice stories, called the Alice Shop, the original site was immortalised by Carroll, who used it as the inspiration for a whole chapter in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. It is also the basis of one of Tenniel's illustrations. In real life, it was a little sweet shop just across the St Aldate Road from where the real Alice, Alice Liddell, lived 140 years ago, at Christ Church.

Now it's off to see Magdalen College, inspiring in its beauty I have been told.