"Literary Links" - The Tailor of Gloucester

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Beatrix Potter used number 9 College Court next to the Pilgrim’s Arch as an illustration in her children’s story “The Tailor of Gloucester.”    

The story recounts how a very poor tailor sent his cat, Simpkin, to buy a twist of silk to finish a waistcoat for the mayor of Gloucester.  While the cat is gone the tailor discovers some poor mice who have been trapped by the cat.  He releases them and when Simpkin returns he is so mad his mice have gone he hides the twist of silk.    The poor tailor falls ill and the grateful mice help him out by completing the waistcoat – all except for one buttonhole which cannot be completed because there is not enough silk.  The cat repents and retrieves the hidden twist so his master can finish the waistcoat to much acclaim. 

The fun bit about this story is it is based on actual events.  No, there were no amazing cats who could shop and plot nor were there any talented sewing mice, but there was a Gloucester tailor called John Pritchard (1877-1934) whose shop was located at 45 Westgate Street.  In 1894 the mayor commissioned him to make a waistcoat and when Pritchard turned up on Monday morning to start the task he found the waistcoat magically complete except for one buttonhole and a note declaring “no more twist.”    Were there mice or fairies or elves or brownies in his workshop.   No.  At the end of work on Saturday some of his assistants went out on the town and got sloshed.  In a drunken state they spent the night at the workshop and were too dishevelled to be seen in public on the Sabbath.  To make good use of their time they worked on the waistcoat until they ran out of twist on the last buttonhole.  

This is an excerpt from the tour Gloucester City Tour - Part One which explores the streets around the Cathedral.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk