Abstract
Henry Liddell, who in his day was a reforming and long-serving dean of Christ Church, Oxford, is best known today for just two things: his co-authorship, with Robert Scott, of the great Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon, and his fatherhood of Alice Liddell, the Alice of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and Looking Glass. The former was a major scholarly achievement, a reference book frequently updated, never altogether surpassed, and the model for the Oxford English Dictionary. The latter was a sort of happenstance, a product of Carroll’s apparent infatuation with the child Alice, and of Lorina Liddell’s ease (later withdrawn) in allowing Carroll, a mathematics student (or ‘fellow’ in other colleges’ terms) to be around her children freely. Liddell himself, an undogmatic clergyman uncomfortable with theological speculation, was an eminent Victorian, a man recognized by most of his contemporaries as a great scholar and decisive administrator.
The structure is broadly chronological, tracing Liddell’s career from his gentry and aristocratic background, his schooling at Charterhouse and undergraduate study at Christ Church, through his headmastership of Westminster School, to his appointment as dean back at Christ Church in 1855, after he had served, with Stanley, on the Royal Commission on Oxford which sealed the Liberal, reformist ascendancy in the university and, to some, finally marked the end of High Church dominance in Oxford. He was dean for 36 years, and oversaw the transformation of the ‘House’ from a domicile of elite idleness to intellectual powerhouse. There is a chapter on Lewis Carroll, but it is ancillary to the main thrust of the book, which is to bring Liddell, his character and commitments, to life.
This is the third clerical biography John Witheridge has written. He is obviously attracted to Liberal Anglicans: his previous books were on Arthur Stanley, Dean of Westminster, and Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stanley is the mediation between Tait and Liddell, a close friend of both. Like Witheridge’s other books, this one is marked by careful scholarship, deep sympathy with his subject, acute judgement, and a highly readable style. The book is a pleasure to read, and really brings to life a man who, even for the more informed church historian, is probably not much more than a name. It is an excellent way into understanding the ethos and changing fortunes of Oxford in the second half of the nineteenth century, and also a vital dimension of the changing character of the Church of England.