By Robert Brooks

CASTLE staff who opened a journal which had lain locked and without a key for over a century thought they were in Wonderland when they discovered what was inside.

They stepped back through the looking glass of time to reveal letters from children's favourite Lewis Carroll, creator of the world-famous Alice, written to Henry George Percy, seventh Duke of Northumberland, and his family at Alnwick Castle in 1896 and 1897. The last of the letters was written to the Duke's seven-year-old daughter, Muriel, weeks before Carroll died in January 1898, This week at the castle, an exhibition featuring the letters, along with the Percy family's private collection of children's books, goes on display to the public for the first time in the castle's magnificent breakfasting room.

Archivist Colin Shrimpton found the journal on a bookshelf in the gallery of the castle's private chapel. Most of the letters were signed Charles Dodgson, Carroll's real name.

"I picked it up without realising its significance for a second," he said yesterday. "I tried to open the lock but to no avail so I took it to the castle houseman and he managed to open it up.

"I looked through and found some loose letters inside written by a chap called Dodgson, which rang a vague bell with me.

"It was only when I got to the last of them and saw a different signature - Lewis Carroll - that the penny dropped.

"The final letter to Muriel was almost certainly one of the last things he ever wrote. "I think it is particularly fitting that one of his last letters was to a little girl of seven, given that his most famous work, Alice in Wonderland, had a heroine of a similar age." The letter wished Muriel a merry Christmas. Carroll also sent her a copy of a book, the The Lost Plum Cake, as a gift. "At the time he wrote that letter he was already a very well-known name in English literature and he signed it as Lewis Carroll, while the others were as Dodgson. "It was a strange thought to discover that something of such significance had lain completely forgotten on a bookcase in the chapel for all this time. "The journal itself was a very ordinary looking thing and gave no hint as to what it might contain.

"I was absolutely amazed when I started reading the letters, it was like a piece of history unfolding in front of me."

The exhibition at the castle is composed of the surviving tomes gathered by three generations of children raised in the castle. The collection includes classics including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the early favourites of Captain Marryat, and the works of AA Milne, Beatrix Potter and Robert Louis Stephenson.

Also on show are original sketches of Potter's well-loved Peter Rabbit, and a first edition of Milne's House at Pooh Corner.

The Duke met Charles Dodgson at Oxford University in 1865, where the writer was working as a maths lecturer while publishing what were to become some of the best-known works of children's literature.

Exciting discovery

THE discovery of the letters was wonderful and exciting, the London-based Lewis Carroll Society said.

Society member and Carroll collector Dr Selwyn Goodacre said: "It is most intriguing to think the letters had lain for so long without anyone knowing they were there.

"All letters by Lewis Carroll are of interest and would bring as much as £1,000 each at auction.

"But the one to the little girl is very interesting indeed. It was written just before the author's final Christmas and, of course, it is interesting that it was to a girl of seven.

"Lewis Carroll died shortly after he wrote the letter and it will be of great interest to enthusiasts al over the world.

"He appears to refer to The Lost Plum Cake in the letter and that book is now a great rarity. "It is a wonderful and exciting discovery. "It is a very interesting and significant find"

BY: Dylan Dronfield, PA News

Letters written by children's author Lewis Carroll shortly before his death have been found in a locked journal and are being heralded as an important literary discovery.

The five letters, which are more than 100-years-old, were found by archivists working in Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

The letters, written in 1896 and 1897, were hidden in a locked journal inside a casket belonging to the 7th Duke of Northumberland's mother, Edith.

Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was a friend and contemporary at Oxford University of Henry George Percy, later the 7th Duke of Northumberland, and one letter is to his young daughter Muriel.

The journal was discovered by the castle's head archivist Colin Shrimpton who had to call in a locksmith to open it before finding the treasure inside.

A spokesman for the 12th Duke said today: "They were found in the locked journal which was in the castle archives and had not been opened because we didn't have a key.

"We think it is quite exciting because the final letter was written so close to his death and was actually signed Lewis Carroll as opposed to his real name Charles Dodgson.

"What we have to remember is Carroll's books were the Harry Potter books of their time and for the seven-year-old Muriel to have received such a letter must have been wonderful."

One of the letters is a reply to a garden party invitation. Three others try to persuade Lord Percy and his wife Edith to have a portrait painted of their eighth child, Mary.

The final letter was written at Christmas 1897 to the couple's 13th child, Muriel, with which he sent a plum cake.

This letter is thought to be one of his last as he died shortly afterwards on January 14, 1898, aged 65.

Four of the five letters are signed in Carroll's real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. The final one to Muriel is signed Lewis Carroll.

Mark Richards, chairman of the Lewis Carroll Society, said: "They will help to fill in certain gaps in the jigsaw of his life. "He was a very prolific letter writer with some 50,000 or so letters to his name, so these ones are not very rare. "What is interesting is that one of them was written so close to his death and it must have been one of the last few he wrote. "Also the way in which they were found locked in a journal which had been unopened for so many years is like something out of a Carroll book itself."

The letters are on display until the end of October at Alnwick Castle as part of an exhibition of children's literature.

By Paul Stokes

SOME of the last letters written by Lewis Carroll have been found locked away in a castle in Northumberland.

Most were signed in the author's real name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and were written to his friend, Henry George Percy, who was to become the 7th Duke of Northumberland. The five letters were discovered by archivists working in Alnwick Castle. Written in 1896 and 1897, they were found on a shelf in a locked journal inside a casket belonging to the duke's mother, Edith. The journal was discovered by Colin Shrimpton, the castle's head archivist, who had to call in a locksmith. Lord Percy and Dodgson met at Christ Church, Oxford, during the 1860s. Lord Percy was a student and Dodgson a mathematics lecturer. At the time, Dodgson was in the process of publishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the name of Lewis Carroll.

Three of the letters are addressed to Lord Percy, one to his wife, Lady Edith, and the last to Muriel, the couple's 13th and last child. Most significant is the one to Muriel, then aged seven, written just before Christmas 1897 and believed to be one of the last things he wrote before his death the following month.

In it he encloses a book entitled The Lost Plum Cake as a festive gift. The book was written by his niece, E G Wilcox, with a preface by himself.

The letters also contain suggestions that the duke should have portraits painted of his children while they were still young and he recommended his friend, E G Thomson, for the commission.

Mr Shrimpton, 66, said: "I think it is fitting that one of his last letters was to a little girl of seven, given that Alice in Wonderland has a heroine of a similar age.

"At the time he wrote that letter he was already a very well-known name in English literature and he signed it as Lewis Carroll, while the others were as Dodgson.

"It was a strange thought to discover that something of such significance had lain forgotten on a bookcase in the chapel for all this time."

The letters are on display at Alnwick Castle.

BY: Dalya Alberge

LOST letters written by Lewis Carroll have been discovered on a dusty bookshelf in a corner of a medieval castle. They turned up at Alnwick Castle, family seat of the Duke of Northumberland, having lain unread in a locked journal for almost a century. They were written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, to his friend Henry George Percy, later the 7th Duke of Northumberland. The journal had been owned by the Duke's wife.

The most significant letter was written to the Duke's seven-year-old daughter Muriel just before Christmas 1897; the author of the Alice books died the next month. Carroll and the Duke had been at Christ Church, Oxford, together during the 1860s: Carroll was a mathematics lecturer; the Duke was a student.

The letters date from between 1896 and 1897. In Carroll's letter to Muriel, he wished her a Merry Christmas for 1897 and sent her a book, The Lost Plum Cake, as a gift.

The letters were discovered by the castle's historian, Colin Shrimpton, who said: "It is quite a task to log everything in the castle. I found the journal on a bookshelf in the gallery of the private chapel and picked it up without realising its significance. I tried to open the lock but to no avail, so I took it to the castle houseman and he managed to open it up. I found some loose letters inside written by a chap called Dodgson, which rang a vague bell. It was only when I got to the last of them and saw a different signature - Lewis Carroll - that the penny dropped."

The letters have gone on display at the castle. A member of the Lewis Carroll Society, Selwyn Goodacre, said: "It is a wonderful and exciting discovery. It is most intriguing to think the letters had lain for so long without anyone knowing they were there."