Lewis Carroll well how to use his fists in defense of a righteous cause", which is the protection of the smaller boys. Scholastically, though, he excelled with apparent ease. "I have not had a more promising boy at his age since I came to Rugby", observed mathematics master R. B. Mayor. Francis Walkingame's "The Tutor's Assistant; Being a Compendium of Arithmetic" – the mathematics textbook that the young Dodgson used – still survives and it contained an inscription in Latin, which translates to: "This book belongs to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: hands off!" Some pages also included annotations such as the one found
Edwin Dodgson priest in 1874, and served his first curacy at Odd Rode in the Diocese of Chester. Following this he served as curate at Helmsley (1875-1877), and at All Saints, Shrewsbury (1877-1879). His subsequent ministry was one of self-sacrifice and dedication, marred by ill health and depression. Dodgson was appointed as Principal of the (UMCA) Kiungani School in Zanzibar in 1879, where he served under Bishop Edward Steere. However, as his brother Charles noted, "the ague was too much for him there". In 1880 he was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) as missionary and school