THE TAILOR OF
GLOUCESTER
BY
BEATRIX POTTER
Author of"The Tale of Peter Rabbit," etc
| "I'LL BE AT CHARGES FOR A LOOKING-GLASS, |
| AND ENTERTAIN A SCORE OR TWO OF TAILORS" |
| Richard III |
NEW YORK
FREDERICK WARNE & CO, INC
COPYRIGHT, 1903
BY
FREDERICK WARNE & Co.
COPYRIGHT RENEWED, 1931
[All rights reserved]
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY PRINCETON POLYCHROME PRESS
ISBN O 7232 0594 9 (cloth) ISBN O-7232-6227-6 (paper)
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20(C)
MY DEAR FREDA,
Because you are fond of fairy-tales, and have been ill, I have made you a story all for yourself—a new one that nobody has read before.
And the queerest thing about it is—that I heard it in Gloucestershire, and that it is true—at least about the tailor, the waistcoat, and the
"No more twist!"
Christmas, 1901
THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER
In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with floweredlappets—when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats ofpaduasoy and taffeta—there lived a tailor in Gloucester.
He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross-legged ona table, from morning till dark.
All day long while the light lasted he sewed and snippeted, piecing outhis satin and pompadour, and lutestring; stuffs had strange names, andwere very expensive in the days of the Tailor of Gloucester.
But although he sewed fine silk for his neighbours, he himself was very,very poor—a little old man in spectacles, with a pinched face, oldcrooked fingers, and a suit of thread-bare clothes.
He cut his coats without waste, according to his embroidered cloth; theywere very small ends and snippets that lay about upon the table—"Toonarrow breadths for nought—except waistcoats for mice," said the tailor.
...