Falling off his horse — Illustrations for Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel

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Falling off his horse

Sir John Tenniel

Wood-engraving by Dalziel

Illustration for the eighth chapter of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass (1871)

"Whenever the horse stopped (which it did very often), [The Knight] fell off in front; and, whenever it went on again (which it generally did rather suddenly), he fell off behind."

See below for a commentary on this illustration, and a link to a comparison with another famous Victorian work, in which an older man has fallen off his horse. [Mouse over the text for links.]

In 2000 student assistants from the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore, scanned this image and added text under the supervision of George P. Landow.

Commentary by Ray Dyer

Tenniel's illustration here tells the story quite as it is in the text, though we may be left wondering whatever happened to the magnificent helmet of the previous picture. Alice calls the helmet "curious," and asks if the Knight had "invented" it. We are told that the helmet "hung from the saddle". We also should not miss there the pointed tip of the ubiquitous Victorian umbrella, so beloved of Carroll's borrowed lesser avatars, the Tweedles, in their earlier appearance at Chapter 4. A quick glance at the following illustration will show Tenniel conscientiously and comprehensively depicting the hidden side of the patient horse, with helmet and essential umbrella now visible.

Pride of place, however, must surely go to the White Knight's famous, though eccentric and humorous inventions, here pictured in their eponymously named chapter. The knight's docile mount sports a classic Lewis Carroll invention, in the form of the sharply pointed metal accoutrements bolted onto its four ankles. Warlike and impressive, we may tell ourselves, only to be hilariously outdone by their author's explanation to the ever curious Alice: "To guard against the bites of sharks…. It's an invention of my own." Almost twenty years later Carroll would outdo even this comedy, in the person of his Fairyland Professor, another gifted if gently disparaged inventor, who would appear at Court wearing knee-high boots to which were fitted circular umbrella-like extensions for protection against - horizontal rain - "…invaluable - simply invaluable!" (Carroll, 1889, Ch. 1). A litany of ever more outrageous inventions followed, throughout all phases of Carroll's later literary career.

One of Carroll's friendships throws light on his inventiveness here. As early as January 1867 he had been in London with a mixed list of chores, one of which was to call upon the mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage (1791-1871), pioneer of mechanical calculating-machines. Carroll was well received and spent time in the elderly inventor's workshop (Diaries 5: 192-3). Later on, the child actress and long-term child-friend of Lewis Carroll, Isa Bowman, would enlarge on Carroll's mechanical interests and skills, especially in connection with his collection of music-boxes. In July 1888, whilst appropriately lodged at St. Aldgate's close to his Christ Church rooms, Isa was entertained by Carroll's tinkering with the mechanisms, inverting and replacing them to produce backwards music (Bowman 21-22). As further proof of his ingenuity, in Eastbourne in August 1877 he bought a mechanical bear for one-and-a half guineas (approximately £450 or $600 at today's rates); and in September 1880, also on holiday there, he rewarded Jessie Hull, aged nine, with a "mechanical swimming frog", (Diaries 7: 53, 291). It is hard to believe that the death of the aged, aged Babbage and the appearance of Tenniel's and Lewis Carroll's "aged, aged" version of the eccentric White Knight, were merely coincidence? Carroll and Tenniel are more likely to have been covertly acknowledging an admired fellow traveller. Just how many avatars and role-models could Lewis Carroll absorb into his psyche, and thence into his literary creations?

Related Material

Discussion of this passage and an incident in Jane Eyre

[You may use the image at the top without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the site and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Bowman, Isa. Lewis Carroll As I Knew Him. Ed. M. N. Cohen. New York: Dover Books, [1899] 1972.

Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno. London: Macmillan, 1889.

_____. Lewis Carroll's Diaries. The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Vols. 5 and 7. Ed. Edward Wakeling. England: Lewis Carroll Society, 1999 and 2003.

Last modified 6 September 2021