We went to town to the fiddling[9] which it was the pill[10] of the day to cry down.  I was much gratified by the show and altogether.  I sate by the Duke of Wellington, who was good enough to go out to fetch me a pot of porter.  When “See the Conquering Hero comes” was sung in Judas Maccabeus, all eyes were turned upon me.  I rose and bowed—­but did not think the place was suited for any more marked acknowledgment.  The King sang the Coronation Anthem exceedingly well, and Princess Victoria whistled the “Dead March” in Saul with, perhaps, rather less than her usual effect.  But the chef d’oeuvre was confessed by all to be Macaulay in “The Praise of God and of the Second Day.”  I rose a wiser, and, I think, a sadder man.

Bishop of Worcester spent two days here last week.  He begged me with tears in his eyes to be Bishop instead of him.  I took a night to consider of it and to examine into my fitness for such a charge—­but in the morning gave answer with the elaborateness which the occasion demanded that I would see him ... first.

THE AUTHOR OF “ALICE”
[Sidenote:  Lewis Carroll]

DEAR SENIOR CENSOR,—­In a desultory conversation on a point connected with the dinner at our high table, you incidentally remarked to me that lobster-sauce, “though a necessary adjunct to turbot, was not entirely wholesome.”

It is entirely unwholesome.  I never ask for it without reluctance; I never take a second spoonful without a feeling of apprehension on the subject of a possible nightmare.  This naturally brings me to the subject of Mathematics, and of the accommodation provided by the University for carrying on the calculations necessary in that important branch of Science.

As Members of Convocation are called upon (whether personally, or, as is less exasperating, by letter) to consider the offer of the Clarendon Trustees, as well as every other subject of human or inhuman, interest, capable of consideration, it has occurred to me to suggest for your consideration how desirable roofed buildings are for carrying on mathematical calculations; in fact, the variable character of the weather in Oxford renders it highly inexpedient to attempt much occupation, of a sedentary nature, in the open air.

Again, it is often impossible for students to carry on accurate mathematical calculations in close contiguity to one another, owing to their mutual conversation; consequently these processes require different rooms in which irrepressible conversationalists, who are found to occur in every branch of Society, might be carefully and permanently fixed.

It may be sufficient, for the present, to enumerate the following requisites—­others might be added as funds permit: 

A. A very large room for calculating Greatest Common Measure.  To this a small one might be attached for Least Common Multiple:  this, however, might be dispensed with.

B. A piece of open ground for keeping Roots and practising their extraction:  it would be advisable to keep Square Roots by themselves, as their corners are apt to damage others.