Phoebe Carlo

[13] Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) had first seen Carlo on New Year's Day 1883 when, aged 8, she was appearing at the Avenue Theatre in Joseph Cave's pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, which he returned to see twice again.

Next she played Ned in Henry Arthur Jones's The Silver King, which Carroll saw three times, following which he called at her family home where he met her and her mother, receiving permission from the latter to take Carlo to the Royal Academy to see Holman Hunt's Triumph of the Innocents.

"[1] In his 1887 article "Alice on the Stage", Carroll praised Carlo's acting, writing of her performance that: ...it would be difficult to speak too highly.

As a mere effort of memory, it was surely a marvellous feat for so young a child, to learn no less than two hundred and fifteen speeches - nearly three times as many as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.

But what I admired most, as realising most nearly my ideal heroine, was her perfect assumption of the high spirits, and readiness to enjoy everything of a child out for a holiday.