od 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 followin