Mirror, mirror

I spent a very enjoyable weekend this summer at the fabulous Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire. It’s a sanctuary for nature lovers and those seeking rest and relaxation with its wellness treatments and beautiful landscaped gardens and woodland.

But nature and wellness aside, I gravitated to the relative quiet of the hotel’s library, with its old world charm, extensive collection of books and spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. There was also something rather special about the room —but it wasn’t the impressive collection of books or the spectacular views.

Rather, it was the ornate gold mirror hanging proudly over the fireplace and the inspiration it is believed to have provided to Lewis Carroll's for his novel, ‘Alice Through the Looking-Glass’, which features Alice climbing through a mirror into a reversed world. 

Carroll came about the now “famous” mirror at Hickleton Hall in Yorkshire, when, in 1852, he became a tutor for the Wood family. The room where he taught had a mirror over the mantelpiece. It was later moved to Hoar Cross Hall when Emily Wood (the daughter of the family Carroll tutored) married and took the mirror to her new home where it hung—and still hangs—over the fireplace. 

I love how this mirror resulted in a beloved classic that continues to be read and cherished by children and adults alike for its playful logic, imaginative, nonsensical qualities and journey into a fantastical world.

“Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get through”

‘Alice Through the Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll