Carroll’s comments on an Oxford Belfry

In The New Belfry of Christ Church, a certain “D. C. L.” wrote:

§ 7. On the impetus given to Art in England by the new Belfry, Ch. Ch.

The idea has spread far and wide, and is rapidly pervading all branches of manufacture. Already an enterprising maker of bonnet-boxes is advertising ‘the Belfry pattern’: two builders of bathing-machines[MG025] at Ramsgate have followed his example: one of the great London houses is supplying ‘bar-soap’ cut in the same striking and symmetrical form: and we are credibly informed that Borwick’s Baking Powder and Thorley’s Food for Cattle are now sold in no other shape.

In https://snrk.de/page_the-new-belfry I wrote about that already earlier, but today I found a Twitter thread by Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) on C.L. Dodgson’s (Lewis Carroll’s) The New Belfry of Christ Church, Oxford.

I've just come across this very funny but little-known work by Lewis Carroll, published in 1873 under the not-very-anonymous pseudonym 'D.C.L.' (Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge – a rearrangement of his real initials). pic.twitter.com/twNBcahJp1

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

In 1872 the Dean of Christ Church, where Dodgson lectured in mathematics, decided to move the Cathedral bells out of the spire and into a separate structure a short distance away. pic.twitter.com/trGJd7fiXd

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

A fabulously ugly wooden belfry to contain them was erected at the corner of the main quadrangle. This photograph of it was taken by Dodgson himself. pic.twitter.com/3V4bktLHQD

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

Dodgson/Carroll's pamphlet is scathing about this eyesore. He coined the architectural term 'Early Debased' to describe it. pic.twitter.com/oGonpfyP7i

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

With tongue firmly in cheek, Carroll suggests that the original design had been suggested by the Dean, Henry Liddell. He was the co-author of a famous Greek dictionary, hence the satirical reference to a lexicon. pic.twitter.com/OSAiDzVpKJ

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

Liddell's collaborator Robert Scott also gets a nodding reference! pic.twitter.com/aSP27UyPVO

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

The building's chief merit? Simplicity. pic.twitter.com/D9WRUp8vj6

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

This chapter is one of the best. pic.twitter.com/1sG20N78gm

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

Carroll makes splendid use of footnotes. pic.twitter.com/WrVUf8hlHd

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

Carroll suggests a tasteful souvenir of the new building should be handed out to guests at the next college reunion. pic.twitter.com/7Qd3uI7xtV

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

The belfry so derided by Lewis Carroll was only visible for a year. It was soon concealed by a far more distinguished stone facade designed by G.F. Bodley. pic.twitter.com/QtUrTEfsEZ

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) April 6, 2018

I should have found your thread earlier. In May 2018 I got the (to far fetched?) idea, that the Snark's »fondness for bathing-machines« could have been a reference to the "Belfry pattern".
https://t.co/sDLc6iPpoD
https://t.co/zA23yqv9xt https://t.co/FcmQGsX12P

— Snark Sesquicentennial (@Snark150) June 8, 2019

I think that the wooden structure still can be seen from inside of today’s belfry. https://t.co/qEDjDFvg89

— Snark Sesquicentennial (@Snark150) June 8, 2019

Yes the new belfry was simply built around the existing wooden structure.

— Thomas Morris (@thomasngmorris) June 8, 2019

The Snark has five marks.

"The fourth is its fondness for bathing-machines,
Which it constantly carries about,
And believes that they add to the beauty of scenes —
A sentiment open to doubt."

+++ https://t.co/tKg7oyIRhz +++ pic.twitter.com/1y2gO2gVBp

— Snark Sesquicentennial (@Snark150) January 3, 2021


 

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2019-06-10, update: 2021-01-03

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