The illustrations for The Tailor of Gloucester, her second and favorite book, were drawn in Gloucester and the country round about, the story being based on an actual Gloucestershire story that she heard while staying with a cousin near Stroud. The fabrics in the watercolors are said to have been taken from fabrics in the V & A. The book was first privately printed, in a limited edition of 400 copies, in 1902; Frederick Warne & Co. published their first edition in 1903. D. Billington, Managing Director of Frederick Warne & Co., stated: ‘Regarding the 22 original illustrations held in your Gallery, these are the same drawings from which we originally made the blocks in our 1903 first edition. Only two of these were used in the 1902 edition and these appear on pages 40 and 43 of the present (1958) edition’ (letter of 28 January 1959). In addition the ninth illustration was used only in the 1902 edition. There are seven further plates in the Warne edition, the drawings for which are not at the Tate Gallery. [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/potter-the-mice-stitching-button-holes-a01110]