Oxford University Press Oxford. Combe's wealth also extended to becoming the first patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and he and his wife Martha bought most of the group's early work, including "The Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt. Combe showed little interest, however, in producing fine printed work at the Press. The most well-known text associated with his print shop was the flawed first edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", printed by Oxford at the expense of its author Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1865. It took the 1850 Royal Commission on the workings of the university and a new
Charles Dodgson (priest) College, Oxford, and who was a friend of Dodgson, used to walk over to visit Daresbury on Sundays, sometimes helping with the church services. Bayne would bring his son Vere, who became a lifelong friend of the young Charles Lutwidge. Other friends and visitors included Richard Durnford, Rector of Middleton, Lancashire; Francis Egerton, Member of Parliament for South Lancashire and John Wilson Patten, MP for North Lancashire. Dodgson was concerned about the canal workers on the Bridgewater Canal running past his parish. Together with Egerton, who was a wealthy local landowner, he converted a barge into a floating chapel, moored