The Tailor of Gloucester

In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets¿when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta¿there lived a tailor in Gloucester. He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross-legged on a table, from morning till dark. All day long while the light lasted he sewed and snippeted, piecing out his satin and pompadour, and lutestring; stuffs had strange names, and were very expensive in the days of the Tailor of Gloucester. Read in English, unabridged.