Poem in cipher : autograph manuscript.

The document is undated. In a letter to Edith Argles dated April 29, 1868, Carroll mentions that he is enclosing something in cipher for her and her sister Agnes (whose nickname was "Dolly") to translate, and he says that it was written with the key-word "fox," which is the key-word used for this poem. Carroll also mentions enclosing a "key-word for Dolly to write with, if she likes." This appears to be a reference to the cipher alphabet cards housed with this poem and cataloged as MA 6387.2. It is not known when or under what circumstances the poem and the cipher alphabets were separated from the letter, which is housed at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas. See The Letters of Lewis Carroll, edited by Morton N. Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), volume I, page 118, for additional information.
The Argles owned two dogs named Fox and Lily.
A portion of the page is torn away, and the missing text is supplied (in red ink) on a piece of paper that has been affixed to the page.
Title supplied by cataloger.
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.
Removed from the "Carrolliana" album (MA 6347) assembled by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., folio 52.
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.