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

The Mouse’s tale
When the Mouse tells the driest thing he knows, he is quoting from Havilland Chepmell’s “Short Course of History”, 1862, pages 143-144. Chepmell’s book was one of the lesson books studied by the Liddell children (Gardner, “Annotated Alice” 46).
The caucus race
In England the term ‘caucus’ referred to a system of highly disciplined party organization by committees. It was often used as an abusive term for the organization of an opposing party. With the term ‘causus race’ Carroll may have poked fun at the committees, as committee members generally did a lot of running around in circles while they were getting nowhere.
The Lory and Carb, and the Tweedle’s chapter
There seem to be several parallels between the book “Holiday House” by Catherine Sinclair (1839) and the Alice stories. Selwyn Goodacre mentions amongst others the following similarities (Goodacre):
“I was in the world long before you were born, and must know best: so hold your tongue.” (said Mrs. Crabtree in Holiday House)
“Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, “I am older than you, and must know better.”
“…an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her daughter, ‘Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson never to lose your temper!’ ‘Hold your tongue, Ma!’ said the young Crab, a little snappishly.”
Mary Ann
In Lewis Carroll’s time, the name ‘Mary Ann’ was a euphemism for ‘servant girl’. Which implies that the White Rabbit may not actually have had a housemaid with that name (Roger Green in Gardner, “Anniversary edition”).
“Keep your temper”
The Caterpillar calls after Alice that he has something important to say, and then tells her: “Keep your temper”. This appears to be somewhat strange advice, as Alice was not even irritated at that moment. Melanie Bayley suggests that the word ‘temper’ does not relate to an emotional state, but to another meaning of the word: “the proportion in which qualities are mingled”. (According to Merriam-Webster: “the state of a substance with respect to certain desired qualities (such as hardness, elasticity, or workability” or “archaic: a suitable proportion or balance of qualities: a middle state between extremes“.)
So the Caterpillar could be telling Alice to keep her body in proportion, no matter what her size. That would be a precursor to her eating from the mushroom and accidentally giving herself a long neck (or such a short torso that her head bumps her feet). Apparently Alice did not understand the Caterpillar’s advice either (Bayley).