7 Famous Mirrors (cont)

•4: Alice’s Looking Glass.

Tenniel Illustration from Alice in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There is, as I’m sure everyone knows, the sequel to Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The book is littered with references to mirrors, beginning with Alice’s speculation (in a conversation with her cat – hmmm…) on what might lie on the other side of her drawing-room mirror.

In the manner of a true scientist, Alice’s conjectures quickly turn to experimentation and she finds that, with a minimum of effort, she can actually pass right through the mirror to the reflected world beyond.

Before long she discovers a book containing a poem:

YKCOWREBBAJ

sevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawT`
ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD
,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA
.ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA

Which of course can only be read with the help of a conveniently handy mirror.

Indeed, the poem might well have been penned by our old friend Leonardo da Vinci, whose notebooks were famously written in a ‘mirror’ hand.

You’re probably thinking ‘Let’s see The Reverend include Leonardo in another installment of 7 Famous Mirrors!! Aha! As we shall see, Leo had more than a little part to play in the next of our mirrors…