which enjoyed a great vogue in their own day, and were popularised by engraving. The public liked their prettiness, simplicity, and refinement, and did not object to their sentimentality and want of realism. Some of his most ambitious pictures were 'Tobias and the Angel,' 1853; 'The Charity of Dorcas,' 1854; 'The Aims-Deeds of Dorcas,' 1855, which was bought by the Queen; 'The Prosperous Days of Job,' 1856 (the two last-named pictures were engraved by H. Bourne for the 'Art Journal'); 'The Child Jesus going to Nazareth with his Parents,' and 'Reading the Psalms,' 1857, both the property of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts; ' The Holy Innocents;' 'The Good Shepherd;' 'Abraham and Hagar;' and among secular subjects, 'The Picture Book' (International Exhibition, 1862); 'The Camellia,' 'The Dresden Flower-Girl,' 'Sappho,' 'Mignon,' and 'Ione.' Dobson was elected an associate of the Royal Academy on 31 Jan. 1860, and an academician in January 1872. He was a member of the Etching Club, founded in 1842. In 1870 he was elected an associate of the Royal Water-colour Society, of which he became a full member in 1875. As a water-colour painter his mission was to stand up for the old tradition of painting entirely in transparent washes, and to protest by quiet insistence against the corruption of the art, as he deemed it, which had been introduced by artists like Walker and George John Pinwell [q. v.], who used body-colour. Dobson remained a constant exhibitor almost to the last, both at the Royal Academy and at the Old Water-colour Society, contributing about a hundred and twenty pictures to the former and about sixty to the latter gallery. He became a retired academician in 1895, and died at Ventnor on 30 Jan. 1898.
[Mag. of Art, i. 183; Athenææum, 5 Feb. 1898; Daily Graphic, 3 Feb. 1898; Memoir by M. H. Spielmann, with portrait.]
DODGSON, CHARLES LUTWIDGE (1832–1898), author and mathematician, best known by his pseudonym, 'Lewis Carroll,' was born at Daresbury, near Warrington, on 27 Jan. 1832, the eldest son of Charles Dodgson, incumbent of Daresbury, afterwards archdeacon of Richmond and one of the canons of Ripon Cathedral, and of his wife and first cousin, Frances Jane Lutwidge.
As a child he displayed quaint precocity. It is told of him that he supplied earthworms with weapons in order that they might fight with more effect, fostered snails and toads, and inquired persistently the meaning of logarithms (S. D. Collingwood, Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll). He also wrote and performed plays for marionettes. In 1844, at the age of twelve, he was sent to school at Richmond in Yorkshire. In 1846 he entered Rugby, where he remained three years and won success in mathematics and divinity, but he seems to have had few of the schoolboy's enthusiasms. His tastes lay in the direction of authorship, and certain home magazines, notably 'The Rectory Umbrella,' are still preserved, largely written and illustrated by himself. Even as a boy his verses were sprightly, and he had a flow of comic ideas.
Dodgson matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 23 May 1850, at the age of eighteen, and on 24 Jan. 1851 entered into residence a residence that practically was uninterrupted until his death. His career as an undergraduate was exemplary. In his first year he won a Boulter scholarship; in his second he took first-class honours in mathematical, and second-class honours in classical, moderations, and was admitted on Pusey's nomination a student of Christ Church. In 1854 he was placed in the first class in the final mathematical school and in the third class in literæ humaniores, and on 18 Dec. he graduated B.A. In 1855 began the career of mathematical lecturer which was to continue until 1881. In 1857 he proceeded M.A., having been a 'Master of the House' (i.e. the senior B.A. enjoying the privileges of an M.A.) since 15 Oct. 1855, when Liddell became dean. On 22 Dec. 1861 he was ordained deacon, never, however, proceeding to priest's orders, partly perhaps from shyness, and partly from a constitutional stammer which prevented reading aloud. He was able, however, to preach, which he did occasionally, and he gave a number of lectures, principally to children. He chose sometimes a Bible subject, such as the Epiphany, but for the most part the entertainment took the form of narrations of portions of his books, illustrated by lantern slides of his own devising. He also made a mechanical Humpty-Dumpty (a character in 'Through the Looking Glass') for this purpose.
To Dodgson's shyness may partially be attributed the circumstance that his friendships were carried on more by letter than by personal intercourse; and it may account to some extent for the fact that his most cherished intimates were little girls, in entertaining whom he was tireless. There is also no doubt that the dictates of a conscience which was perhaps over exacting for daily life were obeyed too closely for
