“… burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after [the rabbit], and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Have you ever stayed up late, feverishly reading and delving deeper and deeper into an obscure yet intriguing topic? Lewis Carroll first introduced the idiom ‘down the rabbit hole’ in his novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in which his character follows a rabbit down a hole into a fantasy world full of bizarre creatures. The term now refers to getting lost in research about something, often losing track of time.

What makes rabbit holes intriguing is that they often lead to the unknown. You may start by looking into an unfamiliar word you encounter in a book, and before you know it, you have ended up reading about the history of ancient kingdoms. One topic I’m particularly interested in is the family trees of famous people, and the more I researched, the more surprising things I learnt! Did you know that well-known writers like Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Roald Dahl are all distantly related? 

Falling down rabbit holes is one of the best ways to learn because you are motivated by your own curiosity and desire for knowledge, rather than by the need to get good grades or finish a piece of homework. It allows you to become fully immersed in a topic or a story you are reading. Falling down rabbit holes is not just limited to reading or the Internet! Your curiosity and interests may lead you to a museum, a library, or a little-known street. 

What better way to explore and fall down an intriguing rabbit hole than by joining one of our Oxford Scholars Tours this upcoming summer? You can be as adventurous as Alice in Wonderland, explore Oxford with the Carroll Group (ages 7-10), stretch your imagination and creativity in the Tolkien Group (ages 11-14), or experience an immersive Oxford education in the Sayers Group (ages 15-17), with a focus on admissions for the top five universities in the UK.