The Original Tales

The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

Name: The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
Author: Beatrix Potter

By Beatrix Potter · First published 1905

Ribby the cat invites Duchess the dog to tea. Duchess accepts — but secretly worries that the pie may be a mouse-pie, which she would rather not eat. So she devises a plan: swap the pies in advance. Things do not go to plan. Patty-pans get involved. So does Dr. Maggotty the magpie.

Beatrix had drafted an earlier version of this story in 1903 (called *Something very very NICE*), but found the plot too thin. She rewrote it entirely in the summer of 1905, keeping the same characters but tightening the comedy. Frederick Warne agreed to a larger format — slightly bigger pictures, finer detail, the first of her tales to break out of the standard small size.

"The Pie and the Patty-Pan roams about the village of Sawrey," wrote Margaret Lane, "lingering over the tiger-lilies and snapdragons in cottage gardens, glancing into parlours and kitchens." Duchess was a real Pomeranian, owned by Mrs. Rogerson at Lakefield Cottage. Dr. Maggotty was sketched at the London Zoo.

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First Edition Notes

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Particulars

Trade edition: October 1905, Frederick Warne & Co.
Setting: Village of Sawrey (and the early form of Hill Top, before its 1906 extension)
Dedication: "For Joan, to read to Baby" (Joan and Beatrix Moore)
Original draft: 1903, titled Something very very NICE — rewritten in 1905
Format: Larger than the standard little books — first of the bigger format

Curiosities

❦The 1903 draft and the 1905 published book share a setting and characters but not a plot. Beatrix kept Ribby and Duchess — and threw everything else out.
❦Mrs. Rogerson owned two Pomeranians — Duchess and a better-looking one called Darkie. Beatrix used Darkie as the painting model but kept Duchess's character: "I had actually seen Duchess begging with the sugar on her nose, waiting until nine had been counted before she touched it."
❦Warne thought no Pomeranian could have such a mane. Beatrix sent them a photograph to prove they could.
❦Beatrix's sketchbook notes for Dr. Maggotty record "very blue and green" feathers, a "brown black eye, nose a little hookier than jackdaw, less feathered," and that the magpie's tail was "more than half" of his overall length.
❦Cousin Stephanie remembered being allowed, as a child, to put red paint on the cushion beneath Duchess in one of the pictures. "I wonder if she took it off again," said Stephanie.