Stained Glass Caterpillar

The parish of St Wilfrid at Daresbury, not far from here, was in the 1830's and early '40s in the care of a poor but learned Perpetual Curate, Charles Dodgson. Despite the typical stringencies of the life of an Anglican clergyman, his family prospered, and when a first son was born on 27th January 1832, there were already two sisters, with five to follow, as well as three more brothers to come. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lutwidge was his mother's maiden name) is - as Lewis Carroll - perhaps Daresbury's most famous son (even allowing for synchrotrons). The Daresbury Parsonage which was home for his first twelve years burned down in 1884, some years after the family had moved to Croft, North Yorkshire (a move with an increase in his father's stipend which enabled the young Charles to be sent off to boarding school and thence, fatefully, to Oxford - see, for example, "Looking Glass Letters" Thomas Hinde, Collins & Brown, London, 1991. ISBN 1 85585 038 9) but the present day church has in the north aisle beyond the tower, a five light nativity scene with some familiar characters decorating the smaller panels below...

The first panel has the White Rabbit and, appropriately, the Dodo, (Bill the lizard makes his usual brief entrance - or is it exit?). The second panel is reproduced in my photograph above: the third is a version of that  Tea Party and the fourth has the Duchess (what, a Duchess before a Queen?) the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon in suitable heraldic poses. Finally come the Knave of Hearts and the Queen, as always ordering the removal of the only part of the Cheshire Cat which appears grinning amongst the acanthus in the centre. A simple inscription in the first panel states that the window is "In memory of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) author of Alice in Wonderland", and the verses - of which surely he would have approved - in the other panels begin (with the caterpillar)

"Lady dear if fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play
'Tis at happy Christmastide..."

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I haven't yet found out where the verses come from. They sound like the typical acrostic which formed the "bookends" to "Alice" - but they're not. I'd like to hear from anyone who knows, or else I might even have to go back to Church...

 

(96/12/30) Well, holidays must be a Good Thing, for during a visit to Warrington Museum today, I found out (there's an almost full size transparency of the window in the exhibition!)

Carroll died on January 14th, 1898, (hence these revisions) at Guildford, where he lies buried.

This is, of course, an Acolyte Science site design