ks, invitations to stay with him at Oxford, or at Eastbourne,
visits with him to the theatre. For the amusement of his little guests
he kept a large assortment of musical-boxes, and an organette which
had to be fed with paper tunes. On one occasion he ordered about
twelve dozen of these tunes "on approval," and asked one of the other
dons, who was considered a judge of music, to come in and hear them
played over. In addition to these attractions there were clock-work
bears, mice, and frogs, and games and puzzles in infinite variety.

One of his little friends, Miss Isabel Standen, has sent me the
following account of her first meeting with him:--

We met for the first time in the Forbury Gardens, Reading.
He was, I believe, waiting for a train. I was playing with
my brothers and sisters in the Gardens. I remember his
taking me on his knee and showing me puzzles, one of which
he refers to in the letter (given below. This puzzle was, by
the way, a great favourite of his; the problem is to draw
three interlaced squares without going over the same lines
twice, or taking the pen off the paper), which is so
thoroughly characteristic of him in its quaint humour:--

"The Chestnuts, Guildford,

_August _22, 1869.

My Dear Isabel,--Though I have only been acquainted
with you for fifteen minutes, yet, as there is no one
else in Reading I have known so long, I hope you will
not mind my troubling you. Before I met you in the
Gardens yesterday I bought some old books at a shop in
Reading, which I left to be called for, and had not
time to go back for them. I didn't even remark the name
of the shop, but I can tell _where_ it was, and if
you know the name of the woman who keeps the shop, and
would put it into the blank I have left in this note,
and direct it to her I should be much obliged ... A
friend of mine, called Mr. Lewis Carroll, tells me he
means to send you a book. He is a _very_ dear
friend of mine. I have known him all my life (we are
the same age) and have _never_ left him. Of course
he was with me in the Gardens, not a yard off--even
while I was drawing those puzzles for you. I wonder if
you saw him?

Your fifteen-minute friend,

C.L. Dodgson.

Have you succeeded in drawing the three squares?"