Chapter III: Part 3

However, he was not always so unfortunate in his experience of great people, and the following letter, written when he was staying with Lord Salisbury at Hatfield House, tells delightfully of his little royal friends, the Duchess of Albany's children:

"HATFIELD HOUSE, HATFIELD,
"HERTS, _June 8, '89_."

"MY DARLING ISA,--I hope this will find you, but I haven't yet had any
letter from _Fulham_, so I can't be sure if you have yet got into your
new house.

"This is Lord Salisbury's house (he is the father, you know, of that
Lady Maud Wolmer that we had luncheon with): I came yesterday, and I'm
going to stay until Monday. It is such a nice house to stay in! They
let one do just as one likes--it isn't 'Now you must do some
geography! now it's time for your sums!' the sort of life _some_
little girls have to lead when they are so foolish as to visit
friends--but one can just please one's own dear self.

"There are some sweet little children staying in the house. Dear
little 'Wang' is here with her mother. By the way, _I_ made a mistake
in telling you what to call her. She is 'the Honourable Mabel
_Palmer_'--'Palmer' is the family name: 'Wolmer' is the _title_, just
as the _family_ name of Lord Salisbury is 'Cecil,' so that his
daughter was Lady Maud Cecil, till she married.

"Then there is the Duchess of Albany here, with two such sweet little
children. She is the widow of Prince Leopold (the Queen's youngest
son), so her children are a Prince and Princess: the girl is 'Alice,'
but I don't know the boy's Christian name: they call him 'Albany,'
because he is the Duke of Albany. Now that I have made friends with a
real live little Princess, I don't intend ever to _speak_ to any more
children that haven't any titles. In fact, I'm so proud, and I hold my
chin so high, that I shouldn't even _see_ you if we met! No, darlings,
you mustn't believe _that_. If I made friends with a _dozen_
Princesses, I would love you better than all of them together, even if
I had them all rolled up into a sort of child-roly-poly.

"Love to Nellie and Emsie.--Your ever loving Uncle,

"C. L. D."
X X X X X X X

And now I think that I have done all that has been in my power to present Lewis Carroll to you in his most delightful aspect--as a friend to children. I have not pretended in any way to write an exhaustive life-story of the man who was so dear to me, but by the aid of the letters and the diaries that I have been enabled to publish, and by the few reminiscences that I have given you of Lewis Carroll as I knew him, I hope I have done something to bring still nearer to your hearts the memory of the greatest friend that children ever had.

Footnotes:

[1] This refers to my visit to America when, as a child, I played the little Duke of York in "Richard III."

[2] At this point the real child's answers begin, the three or four lines alone were written by Mr. Dodgson himself.--ED.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Underlined passages are indicated by =underline=.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Lewis Carroll, by Isa Bowman

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