Finally... I learned why that White Rabbit was always late: It's because Oxford is almost comically full of tradition. One of the preeminent colleges of the 38 that make up the university, Christ Church is particularly loyal to its traditions -- it even has its own time zone. Before the advent of trains made it important that everyone be on the same time -- hence Greenwich Mean Time -- different towns routinely had their own times. Oxford, being 60 miles west of Greenwich, was longitudinally 5 minutes different. To this day, the clock tower at Christ Church runs five minutes later than official British time. My guide tied that to the fact that Lewis Carroll taught there -- so it was natural that the author of Alice in Wonderland would create a character that was always late.