Cоntents intrоductiоn chapter I. The life and work of Lewis Carroll

Alice’s long neck
In ‘Alice in Wonderland’, eating something causes Alice’s neck to stretch. This fireplace in the Hall (the largest college dining hall in Oxford) could very well have been the inspiration for this. Why? Just take a good look at the ‘firedogs’…
The Fish footman
In chapter 6 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (‘Pig and Pepper’), Alice meets a talking fish. It is believed that this idea originated from an attraction Alice Liddell saw when she was at a fair.
The Cheshire Cate tree
This is said to be the tree in which the Cheshire Cat was seated. It is a Horse Chestnut tree. It grows in the Dean’s Garden of Christ Church, Oxford.
The Cheshire Cate
“To grin like a Cheshire Cat” was a common phrase in Carroll’s day. Its origin is not known. However, it could have originated from a sign painter in Cheshire, who painted grinning lions on the sign-boards of inns in the area.
Another explanation could be that at one time, Cheshire cheeses were molded in the shape of a grinning cat (Gardner, “Annotated Alice” 83).
Also, when you take a good look at the ‘Alice Window’ in Christ Church, Oxford, you can see 3 grinning animals at the top of the Liddell’s family arms. Perhaps this is what inspired Dodgson.5
Finally, the Cheshire Cat might be inspired by a carving in St. Peter’s Church, in Croft on Tees, where Lewis Carroll’s father was rector. It is a sedilia a seat for the clergy built into the wall at one end of which is a carved stone face of a cat or lion. Seen from a pew it has a wide smile. But if you stand up, the grin seems to disappear, just as it eventually does in “Alice in Wonderland”. (discovery by Joel Birenbaum)
The Mad Hatter
Carroll might have based the Mad Hatter on Theophilus Carter, a former Christ Church servitor with ugly features and later a furniture dealer near Oxford. Carter was known in the area as the Mad Hatter, partly because he always wore a top hat at the back of his head and partly because of his eccentric ideas. He invented for example an ‘alarm clock bed’, which woke the sleeper by tossing him out. Perhaps this is why Carroll’s hatter is so concerned with the time and arousing the sleepy Dormouse? (Gardner, “The Annotated Alice” 93 and Batey 21)
However, according to Oxford local historian Mark Davies there is hardly any reason why the Hatter should be based on Carter. He thinks is more likely that the
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5. Kelly 1990, pp. x, 14.

Hatter is Thomas Randall, a well known local tailor who referred to himself as ‘a hatter’. Randall gave tea parties in his garden for children. Alice Liddell knew him and sometimes took his retriever Rover out for a walk. She mentioned frequent visits to his house, with great fondness (Davies, “Talk” 2).