Well! It's a bit of a disappointment!
The Treacle Well in the graveyard of St. Margaret's, Binsey, nr Oxford.
Visiting here was a bit of a pilgrimage for me. I've loved 'Alice in Wonderland' since childhood and have clear memories of falling out of bed laughing while making my poor dad read the same passages to me over and over again.
The well's rather uninspiring appearance dates back to a restoration by the Revd T. J. Prout in 1874, the original well-head was destroyed in 1639 (probably by Puritans up to their usual tricks).
Treacle is a Middle English word from Old French triacle meaning an antidote against venom. An example of this usage can be found in the in the 1549 edition of the Bible, in which Jeremiah 8:22 was translated as “Is there no tryacle [treacle] in Gilead?” So the holy wells visited for their curative properties in the early modern period became known in England as treacle wells. This particular treacle well was ‘made to flow by the prayers of St Frideswide’. For a time this was one of the most famous treacle wells in England.
Because Oxford’s patron saint, Frideswide was associated with childbirth, as was St Margaret of Antioch for whom the Binsey church is dedicated, the treacle well became a site of pilgrimage for women seeking protection and help in conception and pregnancy. Henry VIII is thought to have brought Katherine of Aragon to the well to pray for a son.
St Frideswide also has a connection to Christ Church (her shrine is located in the chapel of Christ Church Cathedral), and the treacle well was thus intimately woven into the fabric of the cultural world inhabited by Dodgson and the young Alice Liddle who’s father was the Dean, so its play on the meaning would have been known to her.
The story of 'Alice' first arose on 4 July 1862. Charles Dodgson and his friend reverend Canon Duckworth hired a rowing boat at Folly Bridge and took the sisters Alice, Lorina and Edith Liddell for a river trip up to Binsey for a picnic.
Duckworth remembered it later; “I rowed stroke and he rowed bow (the three little girls sat in the stern) … and the story was actually composed over my shoulder for the benefit of Alice Liddell, who was acting as ‘cox’ of our gig … I remember turning round and saying, ‘Dodgson, is this an extempore romance of yours?’ And he replied, ‘Yes, I’m inventing it as we go along.’ “
Well! It's a bit of a disappointment!
The Treacle Well in the graveyard of St. Margaret's, Binsey, nr Oxford.
Visiting here was a bit of a pilgrimage for me. I've loved 'Alice in Wonderland' since childhood and have clear memories of falling out of bed laughing while making my poor dad read the same passages to me over and over again.
The well's rather uninspiring appearance dates back to a restoration by the Revd T. J. Prout in 1874, the original well-head was destroyed in 1639 (probably by Puritans up to their usual tricks).
Treacle is a Middle English word from Old French triacle meaning an antidote against venom. An example of this usage can be found in the in the 1549 edition of the Bible, in which Jeremiah 8:22 was translated as “Is there no tryacle [treacle] in Gilead?” So the holy wells visited for their curative properties in the early modern period became known in England as treacle wells. This particular treacle well was ‘made to flow by the prayers of St Frideswide’. For a time this was one of the most famous treacle wells in England.
Because Oxford’s patron saint, Frideswide was associated with childbirth, as was St Margaret of Antioch for whom the Binsey church is dedicated, the treacle well became a site of pilgrimage for women seeking protection and help in conception and pregnancy. Henry VIII is thought to have brought Katherine of Aragon to the well to pray for a son.
St Frideswide also has a connection to Christ Church (her shrine is located in the chapel of Christ Church Cathedral), and the treacle well was thus intimately woven into the fabric of the cultural world inhabited by Dodgson and the young Alice Liddle who’s father was the Dean, so its play on the meaning would have been known to her.
The story of 'Alice' first arose on 4 July 1862. Charles Dodgson and his friend reverend Canon Duckworth hired a rowing boat at Folly Bridge and took the sisters Alice, Lorina and Edith Liddell for a river trip up to Binsey for a picnic.
Duckworth remembered it later; “I rowed stroke and he rowed bow (the three little girls sat in the stern) … and the story was actually composed over my shoulder for the benefit of Alice Liddell, who was acting as ‘cox’ of our gig … I remember turning round and saying, ‘Dodgson, is this an extempore romance of yours?’ And he replied, ‘Yes, I’m inventing it as we go along.’ “