Neither the place nor date of writing is provided, however in Morton N. Cohen's "The Letters of Lewis Carroll", volume I, p. 318, Cohen includes a letter from Carroll to Anthony Lawson Mayhew, dated Christ Church, Oxford, November 29, 1878, in which Carroll invites Mayhew and his wife to bring their daughter Ruth to him so that he could photograph her. The Mayhews had four daughters, two of whom were Mary Ruth Mayhew (1866-1939) and Ethel "Effie" Innes Mayhew (1867-1919). In Carroll's letter to Mayhew he says "It dawned on me, after we parted in the road last night, that perhaps you are the owner of a certain 'Ruth Mayhew', whom Mrs. [Thomas] Arnold and other friends have told me I ought to photograph." He then suggests a time for Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew to bring Ruth to him.
Written in purple ink.
This item is part of the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Lewis Carroll collection. The large collection includes printed books, letters, manuscripts, puzzles and games, personal effects and ephemera, which have been cataloged separately.
The letter is signed C. L. Dodgson. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson adopted the pseudonym "Lewis Carroll" in 1856 when publishing a poem in "The Train." He used the pseudonym when publishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other works, but wrote under his given name, Charles Dodgson, when publishing mathematical works and in daily life. For administrative purposes, all manuscripts are collated under the name Lewis Carroll.
Previously accessioned as AAH 519.
Referring to what may have been a mathematical puzzle and including a poem in which he invites her and her sister Ruth to visit so that he might photograph them; saying "My dear Effie, That's what happens when you divide a ring into four! The confusion is awful - Don't do it often;" adding, in a postscript, "T.O.;" including, on the verso, an untitled, eighteen-line, poem saying "If Ruth & you / Come at two, / (Or soon after) / In a state of laughter, / Next Saturday, / You might stay / An hour or so : / And, before you go, / Ruth may sit once more, / As she did before, / For a photograph : / But she mustn't laugh / While it's being done - / That would spoil the fun. / They needn't come / To fetch you home, / If you'll only agree / To walk with me."