Mr. McGregor

Mr. McGregor is a fictional character who appears in three children's books by author and illustrator BeatrIX Potter. He is an antagonist in the stories concerning Peter Rabbit, Peter's cousin Benjamin Bunny and Benjamin's children, the Flopsy Bunnies.

Inspiration

There was no definitive model for Mr. McGregor or his garden. Potter, a lover of nature, got to know many gardens and gardeners and in response to her readers claimed that "the backgrounds of Peter Rabbit are a mixture of locality" and that McGregor "was no special person". It is known, however, that she first wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit in a letter to a child she knew while staying in Scotland in a house she had rented from a man named McGregor.

Books

The fictional Mister McGregor is an elderly farmer (or gardener) who makes his first appearance in The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902). Peter's mother has forbidden him and his sisters to enter McGregor's garden (their father met his end there and was made into a pie by Mrs. McGregor) but Peter does so once his mother leaves on a shopping trip. McGregor chases Peter AbOUT the garden but Peter escapes after losing his jacket and shoes. McGregor dresses a scarecrow with Peter's clothing.

McGregor next appears in the sequel, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904). Peter has returned to McGregor's garden with his cousin Benjamin to retrieve his jacket and shoes. McGregor has a small role in the tale and appears only in the closing pages where he is mystified by tiny footprints in the garden, the disappearance of the scarecrow's clothes and a cat locked in his greenhouse. In spite of his limited role in the action, the effect that he had in the previous story makes Peter very nervous about staying in the garden for too long, though it is McGregor's cat who almost seals the bunnies' doom.

In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909) McGregor has a substantial role in the story and is even given some dialogue. Finding the six sleeping children of the adult Benjamin Bunny, he puts them in a sack and makes plans to sell them for tobacco. His wife however wants to skin them and line her cloak with their fur. The two are disappointed in their plans when they discover the bunnies have escaped and been replaced with old vegetables and a brush.

Mrs. McGregor

His wife appears, or is mentioned, in the same three books as her husband. In Peter Rabbit, Mrs. McGregor has baked Peter's father in a pie some time before the story opens. Two illustrations of Mrs. McGregor (one, youthful and the other, aged) were drawn for the first EDition of the tale but pulled before publication. Potter was dissatisfied with both. In the 2002 Warne edition, the youthful portrait was published opposite the text, "Your Father had an accident there; he was put into a pie by Mrs. McGregor." Behind the youthful Mrs. McGregor is a child holding a spoon. In Benjamin Bunny, Mrs. McGregor leaves home in her best bonnet to ride in a gig driven by Mr. McGregor. In The Flopsy Bunnies, she wants to skin the bunnies to line her old cloak with their fur and scolds her husband when she discovers the bunnies have escaped.

In other media

In 1993, a number of Beatrix Potter's tales were turned into an animated television series and broadcast by the BBC as The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. Mister McGregor was VOICED by Richard Wilson. In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and Mrs Tittlemouse, his first name is mentioned as being Joe, according to what his sister says and when he is looking for the Flopsy Bunnies, he says 'Six wee rabbits making a fool of John McGregor'