'My dear Norah,
There are such numbers of squirrels in the woods here. They are all very busy just now gathering nuts, which they hide away in little holes, where they can find them again, in the winter. An old lady who lives on the island says she thinks they come over the lake when her nuts are ripe; but I wonder how they can get across the water? Perhaps they make little rafts!'
Beatrix Potter’s copy of her letter to Norah Moore, Lingholm, 25 September 1901
National Trust collection (the original letter belongs to the Victoria and Albert Museum collection)
Beatrix first visited the Lake District at the age of 16 when, in 1882, her father rented Wray Castle on the shore of Lake Windermere for the family’s long summer holiday.
This visit introduced Beatrix to the Lakeland landscape that would become the setting and inspiration for so much of her best-loved work.
The family returned to the Lake District for their holidays in subsequent years, staying in various large country houses around Keswick, Windermere and Sawrey.
It was while staying at Lingholm on the shore of Derwent Water in 1901 that Beatrix was inspired with the idea for her first Lake District book, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.
Squirrel Nutkin first appeared in a picture letter sent to Norah Moore from Lingholm, dated 25 September 1901. A few years earlier, in the summer of 1897, Beatrix had written to Norah’s older brother Noel, 'There is an American story that squirrels go down the rivers on little rafts, using their tails for sails, but I think the Keswick squirrels must swim.'
In Norah’s letter, Beatrix develops this anecdote into a proper story complete with pen and ink illustrations.
Through the summers of 1901 and 1902, Beatrix filled her sketchbook with drawings and watercolour sketches of the woods along the shores of Derwent Water and of St Herbert’s Island (renamed Owl Island in the book). These became the backgrounds for the illustrations in the book, which was published in August 1903.
The area around Derwent Water became the setting for two further books. Fawe Park, another Potter holiday home on the lake shore, furnished the garden setting for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny; and The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle was located in the beautiful Newlands Valley just to the west of the lake.
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