The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
Tom Kitten tries to hide from his bath. He climbs up the chimney and finds himself in a place he should not be — face to face with a pair of giant rats called Mr. Samuel Whiskers and Anna Maria, who have a very specific recipe in mind for him.
Beatrix wrote the manuscript at Christmas 1906 as a present for Fruing Warne's small daughter, Winifred. The setting was Hill Top itself — the farmhouse she had just bought, which at that time was overrun with rats. "Two big ones were trapped in the shed here," she wrote at the time, "besides turning out a nest of eight baby rats in the cucumber frame."
The book is a tour of Hill Top — the entrance hall with its dresser, the staircase with the long window and claret curtains, the kitchen range, Mrs. Tabitha bathing Tom. At the very end of the story, you can spot Beatrix herself standing at the end of Smithy Lane, looking towards Farmer Potatoes' barn. She dedicated the book to her own pet rat, Sammy.
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Particulars
- Trade edition
- October 1908, Frederick Warne & Co. (originally titled The Roly-Poly Pudding; renamed Samuel Whiskers in 1926)
- Setting
- Hill Top farmhouse interior, Sawrey
- Dedication
- "In remembrance of 'Sammy' — The intelligent pink-eyed Representative of a Persecuted (but Irrepressible) Race! An affectionate little Friend, and most accomplished Thief!"
- Manuscript
- Christmas 1906, given to Fruing Warne's daughter Winifred. 34 pages of text, 2 watercolours, 32 pen-and-ink drawings in sepia
- Format
- Larger than the standard little book — Warne agreed to a bigger format for fine detail
Curiosities
- ❦While supervising the Hill Top renovations, Beatrix lodged at Belle Green with the village blacksmith's wife: "There is one wall four foot thick with a staircase inside it. I never saw such a place for hide and seek and funny cupboards and closets."
- ❦When Warne questioned the unusual word "pink-eyed" in her dedication, Beatrix held firm: "I think it is sufficiently clear that the dedication is to an actual pet rat."
- ❦When Warne questioned the word "scuttered," Beatrix wrote back: "I think it is common Lancashire and probably good Anglo-Saxon… 'scuttered' appears on page 49 of the immortal Peter Rabbit, which is a classic!"
- ❦The dog at the end of the book is John Joiner, named after old John Taylor's son from the village shop in Ginger and Pickles.
- ❦Farmer Potatoes in his barn was copied from a photograph Beatrix had taken of her neighbour, Farmer Postlethwaite, who lived nearby.
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