<P> The Hatter introduced in Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland wears a large top hat with a hatband reading "In this style 10 / 6". This is the hat's price tag, indicative of The Hatter's trade, and giving the price in pre-decimal British money as ten shillings and six pence (or half a guinea). </P> <P> The Hatter and his tea party friend, the March Hare, are initially referred to as "both mad" by the distinctive Cheshire Cat . The first mention of both characters occurs in the sixth chapter of Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, titled "Pig and Pepper", in a conversation between the child protagonist Alice and the Cheshire Cat, when she asks "what sort of people live about here?" to which the cat replies "in that direction lives a Hatter, and in that direction, lives a March Hare . Visit either you like: they're both mad!" Both then subsequently make their actual debuts in the seventh chapter of the same book, which is titled "A Mad Tea - Party". </P> <P> Hat making was the main trade in Stockport where Carroll grew up, and it was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning . However, the Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self - confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive . </P> <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>

Facts about the mad hatter in alice in wonderland