After luncheon I went to the Tennysons, and got Hallam and Lionel to sign their names in my album.  Also I made a bargain with Lionel, that he was to give me some MS. of his verses, and I was to send him some of mine.  It was a very difficult bargain to make; I almost despaired of it at first, he put in so many conditions—­first, I was to play a game of chess with him; this, with much difficulty, was reduced to twelve moves on each side; but this made little difference, as I check-mated him at the sixth move.  Second, he was to be allowed to give me one blow on the head with a mallet (this he at last consented to give up).  I forget if there were others, but it ended in my getting the verses, for which I have written out “The Lonely Moor” for him.

Mr. Dodgson took a great interest in occult phenomena, and was for some time an enthusiastic member of the “Psychical Society.”  It was his interest in ghosts that led to his meeting with the artist Mr. Heaphy, who had painted a picture of a ghost which he himself had seen.  I quote the following from a letter to his sister Mary:—­

During my last visit to town, I paid a very interesting visit to a new artist, Mr. Heaphy.  Do you remember that curious story of a ghost lady (in Household Words or All the Year Round), who sat to an artist for her picture; it was called “Mr. H.’s Story,” and he was the writer....  He received me most kindly, and we had a very interesting talk about the ghost, which certainly is one of the most curious and inexplicable stories I ever heard.  He showed me her picture (life size), and she must have been very lovely, if it is like her (or like it, which ever is the correct pronoun)....  Mr. Heaphy showed me a most interesting collection of drawings he has made abroad; he has been about, hunting up the earliest and most authentic pictures of our Saviour, some merely outlines, some coloured pictures.  They agree wonderfully in the character of the face, and one, he says, there is no doubt was done before the year 150....  I feel sure from his tone that he is doing this in a religious spirit, and not merely as an artist.

On July 4, 1862, there is a very important entry:  “I made an expedition up the river to Godstow with the three Liddells; we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Christ Church till half-past eight.”

[Illustration:  Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell. From a photograph by Lewis Carroll.]

On the opposite page he added, somewhat later, “On which occasion I told them the fairy-tale of ‘Alice’s Adventures Underground,’ which I undertook to write out for Alice.”

These words need to be supplemented by the verses with which he prefaced the “Wonderland":—­

        All in the golden afternoon
          Full leisurely we glide;
        For both our oars, with little skill,
          By little arms are plied,
        While little hands make vain pretence
          Our wanderings to guide.