<P> It has often been claimed that the Hatter's character may have been inspired by Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer . Carter was supposedly at one time a servitor at Christ Church, one of the University of Oxford's colleges . This is not substantiated by university records . He later owned a furniture shop, and became known as the "Mad Hatter" from his habit of standing in the door of his shop wearing a top hat . Sir John Tenniel is reported to have come to Oxford especially to sketch him for his illustrations . There is no evidence for this claim, however, in either Carroll's letters or diaries . </P> <P> In the chapter "A Mad Tea Party", the Hatter asks a much - noted riddle "why is a raven like a writing desk?" When Alice gives up trying to figure out why, the Hatter admits "I haven't the slightest idea!". Carroll originally intended the riddle to be without an answer, but after many requests from readers, he and others--including puzzle expert Sam Loyd--suggested possible answers; in his preface to the 1896 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll wrote: </P> <P> Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter's riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, "because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" This, however, is merely an afterthought; the riddle as originally invented had no answer at all . </P> <P> Loyd proposed a number of alternative solutions to the riddle, including "because Poe wrote on both" (alluding to Poe's 1845 narrative poem The Raven) and "because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes". </P>

Who is the mad hatter in alice in wonderland