Over the years Tenniel’s illustrations of the Alice books
have provided inspiration for many political cartoons over the years, and even
Tenniel himself got in on the act. This passes comment on the City of London
authorities’ decision to erect the current Temple Bar Memorial, which stands to
this day in the Strand. Temple Bar itself was removed to make room for the building
of the law courts in the Strand in the 1870s. It was rebuilt in Theobalds Park
in Hertfordshire until a successful campaign brought it back to London where it
was carefully re-erected in the shadow of St. Paul’s on the entrance to
Paternoster Square.
The cartoon accompanied a written skit, satirising the
decision to put up the memorial in the style of Alice in Wonderland. The criticism
was mainly that the Memorial would create a traffic obstacle when congestion in
the City was already of unmanageable proportions.
As for the cartoon, well, Alice is clearly Tenniel’s Alice.
The choice to include the Griffin and the Mock Turtle was probably dictated by
the text, but also rather obvious considering that the Memorial is topped by a
sculpture of a griffin, the heraldic symbol of London, holding up London’s coat
of arms. The Griffin looks quite different from the depictions of the Griffin
in Wonderland. Not as different as the Mock Turtle here. The Mock Turtle in the
carton represents the Mansion House authorities of the City of London, which is
why it wears the shield of the City. There’s precious little mock about this
particular turtle. No calf’s head, but a real turtle head instead, for example.
Here's my copy of one of the griffin and mock turtle illustrations
from Wonderland.
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