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Alice in Wonderland

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Any day is good day for a mad tea party or an "unbirthday"!  A very special Alice day, however, is July 4th, the day of the "Golden Afternoon" which inspired Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgon) to devise his story of a little girl tumbling down a rabbit hole.  
 
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson began to tell the story of a little girl named Alice on an outing with Alice, Edith, and Lorina Liddell on July 4, 1862. He later recalled that “golden afternoon” in a poem that prefaces many editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
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     A Golden Afternoon
 
All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.
 
Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,
Beneath such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?
 
Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict “to begin it”:
In gentler tones Secunda hopes
“There will be nonsense in it!”
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.
 
Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast—
And half believe it true?
 
And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
“The rest next time—” “It is next time!”
The happy voices cry.
 
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out—
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
 
Alice! A childish story take,
And with a gentle hand,
Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined
In Memory’s mystic band,
Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of flowers
Pluck’d in a far-off land.
 
The initial publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a limited run on July 4th, 1885 (3 years to the date of the famous "golden afternoon" which Lewis Carroll spent with the Dean of Oxford's young daughters, Ina, Edith, and Alice (referenced in the poem above) telling them stories which inspired the version we know now.  
 
Later that year, November 18th, 1885, the "first" edition was published (though November 26th was also mentioned), although the books themselves are dated 1886.  
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For a wonderful resource site for all things Alice, click here.
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Curious and Curiouser tartans inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass ... by designer Carol Martin.
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Enjoy this special selection of tartans!   

Click any picture below for more details about the tartans

 on the curious and Unusual Tartans website!  

these tartans and more all reside within the calendar year of tartans.

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