The Tailor of Gloucester (Beatrix Potter Originals)

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The tailor was very tired and beginning to be ill. He sat down by the hearth and talked to himself about that wonderful coat. The waistcoat is cut out from peach-coloured satin—tambour stitch and rose-buds in beautiful floss silk! Was I wise to entrust my last fourpence to Simpkin? One-and-twenty buttonholes of cherry-coloured twist!" But Simpkin set down the pipkin of milk upon the dresser, and looked suspiciously at the tea-cups. He wanted his supper of little fat mouse! But upon the table—oh joy! the tailor gave a shout—there, where he had left plain cuttings of silk—there lay the most beautiful coat and embroidered satin waistcoat that ever were worn by a Mayor of Gloucester!

At this point I'd read a lot of stories like this one (overworked worker gets supernatural help and gets famous), but my kid hadn't. My kid liked it for the most part, though there were a lot of questions about the drawn out endless scenes of tailoring that didn't really offer much in terms of practice or detail. When the snowflakes came down against the small leaded window-panes and shut out the light, the tailor had done his day’s work; all the silk and satin lay cut out upon the table. But although he sewed fine silk for his neighbors, he himself was very, very poor. He cut his coats without waste; according to his embroidered cloth, they were very small ends and snippets that lay about upon the table—“Too narrow breadths for nought—except waistcoats for mice,” said the tailor. Please enjoy this charming Christmas tale, told and illustrated by Britain's foremost children's book author and illustrator. Potter gave a copy of the book to her Chelsea tailor who, in turn, displayed it to a representative of the trade journal, The Tailor & Cutter. The journal's review appeared on Christmas Eve 1903:

we think it is by far the prettiest story connected with tailoring we have ever read, and as it is full of that spirit of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, we are not ashamed to confess that it brought the moisture to our eyes, as well as the smile to our face. It is got up in choicest style and illustrated by twenty-seven of the prettiest pictures it is possible to imagine. [10] Adaptations [ edit ]

The obverse of the coin features the 20 1 5 coinage portrait of the Queen by Jody Clark, the first Royal Mint employee to create a portrait in 100 years – the practice is usually completed by artists working outside of the Mint. The inscription ‘ELIZABETH II.D.REG.F.D. 50 PENCE. 2018 ’ appears around the portrait. Ordinarily, the denomination appears on the reverse face of the coin, but certain Beatrix Potter coins feature it on the portrait side. But the tailor came out of his shop and shuffled home through the snow; he lived quite near by in College Court, next the doorway to College Green. And although it was not a big house, the tailor was so poor he only rented the kitchen. The trail is organised by the Cathedral Quarter High Street Heritage Action Zone Partnership, in the The story goes that local tailor John Pritchard, whose shop was located at number 45 Westgate Street in the late 1880s, left an unfinished waistcoat in his shop one Saturday evening. The garment was discreetly finished by his apprentices who had opted to bunk down in the shop after a jolly session in a nearby pub rather than venturing home. They managed to finish all but one buttonhole before running out of thread, leaving a note for the tailor reading 'no more twist', which was the Victorian tailor's term for sewing thread. Beatrix Potter was born to a wealthy family in London, England in 1866. Supposedly tutored (but largely ignored) by her governess, she had many long hours to spend alone with a growing menagerie of pets, which she taught herself to draw in startlingly accurate detail and proportion. Her innate intelligence and ability to observe and document minute details of nature should have given her a scientific career. But Victorian England didn't even think women should have "their own" money or property, much less a career in a "man's world."

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Then the tailor started; for suddenly, interrupting him, from the dresser at the other side of the kitchen came a number of little noises— Potter later borrowed Freda Moore's gift copy, revised the work, and privately printed the tale in December 1902. [8] [9] She marketed the book among family and friends and sent a copy to her publisher who made numerous cuts in both text and illustrations for the trade edition, chiefly among the tale's many nursery rhymes. [3] Publication history [ edit ]