Christmas Eve Fable Comes to Life in Gloucester<

by Marilyn Loeser

Tucked away near the Gloucester Cathedral wall is the tiny tailor shop Beatrix Potter used as the model for the illustrations she drew for The Tailor of Gloucester, a children's novel first published in October 1903.

Traditionally read to children on Christmas Eve, just before bed time, the story tells of a tailor who falls ill and is unable to complete an important commission. When he returns to his shop, however, it is to find the waistcoat completed.

The idea for the book came from a story Potter heard from her cousin about a tailor helped by his human friends.

In her book, Potter tells the story of a poor tailor, his cat and the mice that live in his shop. He has many scraps of cloth and ribbons left over that are too small for any practical use. The mice take these and make fine clothes for themselves. The tailor sends his cat Simpkin to buy food and a twist of cherry-colored silk for a coat the mayor has commissioned for his wedding, which will take place on Christmas morning.

While the cat is gone, he frees the mice from teacups where Simpkin has imprisoned them. When Simpkin returns and finds his mice gone, he hides the twist in anger. {place beatrix potter 1 photo here}

The tailor falls ill and the mice save the day by completing the coat. <

The picturesque building the story is set in is virtually unchanged from Beatrix Potter's time and is currently open. Beatrix Potter memorabilia is sold here and there is a small museum in the writer’s honor on the second floor.

Born in 1866, Potter lived in a privileged household and throughout her lifetime became a famous author, illustrator and conservationist.

Raised by governesses, Potter grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and spent holidays in Scotland and the Lake District where she developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, and painted what she observed.

As a young woman her parents discouraged her intellectual development, but her study and paintings ability led her to be widely respected in the field of botany.

Potter published her first children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit in her 30s, and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne. Warne died before the wedding could take place.

She eventually published 23 children's books and, having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her 40s she married a local solicitor, William Heelis.

Potter died in 1943, and left almost all of her property to her husband who, after his death in 1945, left it to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers. http://www.tailor-of-gloucester.org.uk

http://www.hop-skip-jump.com/

http://www.openroads.com/beatrix-potter-attractions.html