If you’ll tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a groat.” He bobbed up and down like a little red cherry, singing-Ī staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat Brown, will you favour us with permission to gather nuts upon your island?”īut Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners.

Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow, and said politely. They also took with them an offering of three fat mice as a present for Old Brown, and put them down upon his door-step. They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts.Įach squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail for a sail.

One autumn when the nuts were ripe, and the leaves on the hazel bushes were golden and green-Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all the other little squirrels came out of the wood, and down to the edge of the lake. In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nut bushes and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak-tree, which is the house of an owl who is called Old Brown. He had a brother called Twinkleberry, and a great many cousins: they lived in a wood at the edge of a lake.

Judy Taylor, Beatrix Potter, 1866-1943: The Artist and Her World, 1987.This is a Tale about a tail-a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin. Spine faded, superficial wear to front joint, occasional spots of soiling to contents. Gift inscription on front pastedown dated September 1903, one month after publication.

Original grey boards, spine and front cover lettered in white, colour pictorial front-cover label and endpapers.įrontispiece and 26 colour plates by the author, black vignette on title page. At that same time (having let off my objections) - I dare say it will come out all right' (quoted in Taylor, p. It is the first Potter book to feature pictorial endpapers, which she was initially inclined against: 'I always think that an endpaper ought to be something to rest the eye between the cover and the contents of the book like a plain mount for a framed drawing. The story originated in 1897 with a picture letter to Noel Moore, and was rewritten in 1901 for Norah Moore. First edition, first or second impression, believed to be indistinguishable, with the title page dated 1903 and without the statement 'Author of the Tale of Peter Rabbit'.

The tale of squirrel nutkin