Letter: The Abbess and the Snark

Thursday 21 November 1996 00:02 GMT

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Sir: The Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) began to have those visions which so impressed and influenced her contemporaries at the age of 42; and, at the other end of the spectrum, Lewis Carroll wrote in The Hunting of the Snark:

He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed.

With his name painted clearly on each:

But since he omitted to mention the fact,

They were all left behind on the beach.

JEREMY BARKER

KATHERINE BARKER

Sherborne,

Dorset

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Letter: The Abbess and the Snark

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