['Alice in Wonderland' parody, 1877.] Corrected manuscript of anonymous poem titled 'A Lay of Hatcham | Good Friday 1877 | (with apologies to the Author of Alice in Wonderland)', relating to the Ritualist Vicar of St James's, Hatcham, Arthur Tooth.

2pp., 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased. On ruled wove paper with Monckton watermark. Sixty-line poem in ten six-line stanzas. An early parody of Lewis Carroll's 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'; the original was published in 'Alice Through the Looking-Glass' in 1871. The first stanza reads: 'The Prelate & the Protestants | Were walking to and fro. | They wept to see the Altar Screen | Their tears began to flow. | Tis very sad the Prelate said. | Dear Tooth, I loved him so.' (The author toys with the idea of changing the first line to 'The Prelate & the Crocodiles', but keeps the original.) The manuscript carries several emendations, almost invariably for the better. For example, 'The world is full of woe' becomes 'Dear Tooth - I loved him so'; 'My time is up, my anchor's weighed' becomes 'My time is up, next Sunday week'; and 'Of vestments & of candles tall' becomes 'Of cassocks & of chasubles' The celebrated stanza of the original, beginning 'The time has come, the Walrus said', is parodied thus: 'The time has come the Prelate said | To talk of many things, | Of cassocks & of chasubles | Of angels with gilt wings. | And whether lessons should be read | From Apocrypha or Kings -'. For the background to the poem see Tooth's entry in the Oxford DNB, as well as Joyce Coombes, 'Judgement on Hatcham: The History of a Religious Struggle, 1877-1886'(1969) and Kenneth Hylson-Smith 'Evangelicals in the Church of England 1734-1984' (1992). The 'Tooth' of the poem is Rev. Arthur Tooth, Vicar of St James's, Hatcham; and 'Benjamin' is his replacement, the temporary curate Benjamin Dale. A reference to 'E. C. Us' is to the English Church Union. Following his arrival in 1868, Tooth did a great deal for his working-class parish, setting up many clubs and committees to cater for the needs of his poorer parishioners. He was also an able preacher, and congregations rapidly increased in size. His practices were however considered by some parishioners too 'advanced', and the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act in 1874 allowed three of them to charge him with eighteen offences under the act, including the use of incense, vestments, and altar candles. The case first came before Lord Penzance at Lambeth Palace on 13 July 1876, and Tooth was eventually inhibited from conducting services in his church for three months. He ignored the sentence and carried on as before, and riots followed. On 22 January 1877, he was taken into custody and lodged in Horsemonger Lane gaol for contempt of court. He left prison around a month later, and was gone from the parish by the end of the following year.