Showing results for "The Tailor of Gloucester" in Classics

Beatrix Potter’s charming tale The Tailor of Gloucester tells the heartwarming story of a poor tailor who falls ill before completing an important coat for the mayor's wedding. Little does he know, his faithful mouse friends come to the rescue, using their nimble paws to help finish the coat in time.

Who will help the tailor of Gloucester to finish the Mayor’s elegant coat? For the tailor has fallen ill, and the Mayor is to be married in it tomorrow – on Christmas Day in the morning. Potter based the story on a real-world incident involving John Prichard, a Gloucester tailor who had a commission to make a new suit for the new mayor. But it’s Potter’s charming touch of adding impish, mischievous animals to move the story along that make this children’s classic.

A poor tailor is too ill to finish the beautiful coat and waistcoat he has been stitching for the mayor of Gloucester to wear at his wedding on Christmas morning. He sends his cat, Simpkin, out in the snowy evening to buy some food and, most importantly, the cherry-colored silk he needs to finish his coat and waistcoat. While Simpkin is out, the tailor discovers all the mice Simpkin has hidden under the teacups and accidentally frees them all. They run out of the house, but not before they overhear him speak aloud his fears that he will not be able to complete his work.