At which fictional educational establishment did they teach reeling, writhing and fainting in coils?

Question

And what were the four branches of arithmetic? And who was the author?

Answer 1

The Mock Turtle's Academy in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll was an Oxford mathematics don and this was his satire on the world of Academia, The four branches of Arithmetic were Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision.

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division of course, and Reading, Writing and Painting In Oils.

The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel," that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils." This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. Alice Liddell was the girl on whom Lewis Carroll modelled the Alice character.

Answer 2

Wow, Clair, nice work. I certainly can't answer better than that.