Sir, - Between 1988 and 1992, I read all the texts then available to me about Lewis Carroll, preparatory to producing an exhibition of drawings and paintings derived from the works of this master - the third most quoted writer in English after Shakespeare and the Bible. I am very sorry to see Fintan O'Toole demonise this kindly eccentric in Second Opinion (September 3rd). I quote from a letter to the Sunday Times in 1972, written from Oxford by a Mrs May Hankey.
"It is always sad to criticise those who cannot answer back, but perhaps one who knew him may do so instead. To us his young friends his clerical dress showed dignity and commanded respect. He never stammered with us, obviously being at ease with the very young. Far from being unpleasant to be with him, it was sheer delight."
Carroll was of a generation, like Wordsworth's, that believed we come innocent from Heaven, that our life is a process of corruption. His own probity is unquestionable. As an ecumenist, he was ahead of his time. He could not believe in Hell, which he abhorred as a concept unworthy of a loving creator.
No one who has read his diaries could impute to him any but the highest motives. I close with another quotation from Mrs. Hankey: "There can be few of whom it can be said that he could see into the heart of a child, and up to the time of his death he retained for himself a child's innocence of heart". Yours, etc.,
Clareville Road,
Dublin 6 W.