Beschreibung:

UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('Charles L. Dodgson'), written in his characteristic purple ink, to Miss [Beatrice Ethel] Heron-Maxwell, lady-in-attendance on the Duchess of Albany, comparing the temperaments of the two children in her care, Princess Alice and Prince Charles Edward ('...the little Duke...was, to my mind, about 1¾ times, let us say, as fascinating as his sister!...Don't think, because I rate the little boy's charms as higher than his sister's, that I fail to see hers. The little Princess I thought very sweet, but liable, under excitement, to betray what is called "self-will" (it is really weakness of will) and that selfishness which is the besetting sin of childhood - Under weak management, that child w[oul]d, I should fear, grow up a terror to all around her!...'), disclosing his 'practical test for the charm of childhood' ('...how should we get on tête-à-tête? If I were offered a tête-à-tête walk with whichever I preferred of those two children, I should choose the little Duke...'), and observing that he does not 'feel on sufficiently intimate terms with the children to send any messages' and that he never sends to a child 'any colder message than "love": and that would be presumptuous to a Princess!'; he also asks for advice on a book 'young enough, & also likely to be new' to send to 'the little Duke', suggesting (while assuming permission to do so) Jappie Chappie ('...it is the book for my purpose - being suitable for very young children, and appropriate for one to five, because it is done by a lady [Mrs Shute], a great friend of mine...') or else Romps by his friend Harry Furniss the illustrator of Sylvie and Bruno; he also delights in his 'several hours of the society of a little child...dear little "Maggie Bowman", who is just now in Oxford, acting "Bootles' Baby"' and photographs of the Bowman children ('...they are very interesting children, & very dear friends of mine...'), 4 pages, octavo, autograph stamped envelope, Christ Church, Oxford, 12 June 1889