Letter from Lewis Carroll, Oxford, to Florence Terry, 1874 January : autograph manuscript signed.

Chiding her for an incident saying "Ever since that heartless piece of conduct of yours (I allude to the affair of the Moon & the blue silk gown) I have regarded you with a gloomy interest, rather than with any of the affection of former years - so that the above epithet 'dear' must be taken as conventional only, or perhaps may be fitly taken in the sense in which we talk of a 'dear' bargain, meaning to imply how much it has cost us : and who shall say how many sleepless nights it has cost me to endeavour to unravel (a most appropriate verb) that 'blue silk gown;" explaining, in detail, why a photograph "of the family group" which Carroll promised to deliver in 1867 had still not been delivered to Tom [Taylor?] and asking her to pass along the explanation saying "You will wonder why I ask you to tell him instead of writing myself - The obvious reason is that you will be able, from sympathy, to put my delay in the most favourable light - to make him see that, as hasty puddings are not the best of puddings, so hasty judgements are not the best of judgements, and that he ought to be content to wait, even another 7 years, for his picture, and to sit 'like patience on a monument, smiling at grief.' This quotation, by the way, is altogether a misprint - Let me explain it to you. The passage originally stood 'They sit, Like patients on the Monument, smiling at Greenwich - In the next edition 'Greenwich' has printed short 'Green'h' & so got gradually altered into 'Grief' - The allusion of course is to the celebrated Dr. Jenner, who used to send all his patients to sit on the top of the Monument (near London Bridge) to inhale fresh air, promising them that, when they were well enough, they should go to 'Greenwich Fair.' So of course they always looked out towards Greenwich, & sat smiling to think of the treat in store for them. A play was written on the subject of their inhaling the fresh air, & was for some time attributed to him (Shakespeare) but it is certainly not in his style - It was called 'The Wandering Air', & was lately revived at the Queen's Theatre. The custom of sitting on the Monument was given up when Dr. Jenner went mad, & insisted on it that the air was worst up there, & that the lower you went the more airy it became. Hence he always called those little yards, below the pavement, outside kitchen windows, 'the kitchen airier,' a name that is still in use. All this information you are most welcome to use, the next time you are in want of something to talk about. You may say you learned it from 'a distinguished etymologist', which is perfectly true, since any one who knows me by sight can easily distinguish me from all the other etymologists. What parts are you & Polly now playing? Believe me to be (conventionally), yours affectionately, / C.L. Dodgson."