Beatrix Potter, who wrote the much-loved ‘Peter Rabbit’ children’s tales, is a well-known character of the Lake District. She invested the money earned from her ‘little books’ buying Lake District farms and was a leading conservationist of her time. On her death she left 14 farms and over 4,000 acres of countryside to the National Trust.
Beatrix Potter's childhood
Beatrix Potter was born in London on 28 July 1866. She lived in an elegant townhouse in Kensington with her mother Helen, her father Rupert, and her younger brother Bertram. The families of both her parents had their origins in the industrialised North of England and their money was inherited from the Lancashire cotton industry.
Rupert Potter was a qualified barrister who chose not to practice, but instead to pursue his passion for art and photography. As a young child, Beatrix showed signs of having inherited the artistic talent of her parents and was frequently treated to gallery trips or visits to her father’s notable friends, William Gaskell, husband of Elizabeth Gaskell the novelist, and the painter John Everett Millais.
Typical of many middle-class young girls at the time, Beatrix had little real contact with her parents. Her childhood was rather lonely, with few friends and only a governess for company. Her fascination for painting and drawing occupied most of her spare time outside lessons and she loved to sketch plants and animals, especially the many pets which she and Bertram kept in the nursery at Bolton Gardens. This interest would later become the inspiration for many of her stories.
The Potters took long holidays each year to the countryside in Scotland and the Lake District, where Beatrix indulged in her interest in nature, spending hours exploring and sketching the wildlife. When Beatrix was a teenager, the family spent some summer holidays at Wray Castle, on the west shore of Windermere. This is where she met Canon Rawnsley, one of the founder members of the National Trust, who was to be a great influence and a lifelong friend.
Beatrix loved painting and drawing: she produced an enormous body of work throughout her lifetime, including: over 500 natural history drawings, botanical studies of fungi, mosses and lichens, landscapes, still life and, of course, her famous animal characters. The National Trust has in excess of 1,000 items in its collection, which includes most of the original illustrations for the 23 tales, unpublished drawings, sketchbooks, letters, journals and photographs. See some of the Beatrix Potter collection online or visit the Beatrix Potter Gallery in the Lake District.
'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' and the first children’s books
In 1890 Beatrix had her first commercial success when she sold some of her illustrations to a greetings card manufacturer. Some years later she developed a story letter she had sent to the son of her former governess into a book. When the book, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Mr MacGregor’s Garden', was turned down by no less than six publishers she decided to pay for 250 copies to be printed as a private edition.
In 1902, Frederick Warne & Co agreed to publish an initial quantity of 8,000. They sold out instantly and Beatrix’s career as a storyteller was launched.
More than 40 million copies of this book have been sold worldwide in more than 35 languages. Since 1902, the publisher Frederick Warne has reprinted 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' more than 300 times.
Beatrix regularly visited Warne’s London offices and most often dealt with Frederick’s son, Norman. With these visits they became close and when in 1905 Norman proposed to Beatrix she accepted, much against the wishes of her parents who forbade her to announce the engagement. Tragically, Norman died just a few weeks after and, although she would later marry, she always wore the ring Norman had given her and remained close friends with his sister Millie.
By this time, Warne had published six of Beatrix Potter’s books, including 'The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle'. She used the profits to buy her first farm, Hill Top in the village of Near Sawrey in the Lake District.
'The Tale of Tom Kitten' and 'The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck' were both set in and around Hill Top.
With her approval a range of merchandise was produced, pottery, toys and even slippers bearing scenes from the tales were licensed. Beatrix realised that the royalties from what she termed the 'little sideshows' would enable her to donate more money to the fledgling National Trust.
Beatrix Potter and the Lake District
Beatrix loved life in the Lake District and as a prominent member of the farming community she won prizes for breeding sheep and she also became a fierce campaigner on local conservation issues.
During the next few years Beatrix purchased a considerable amount of land in the Lake District and was advised by local solicitor William Heelis, who she later married. Only a few books were produced for Frederick Warne after their marriage.
Beatrix Potter invested the money she earned from her stories in buying Lake District farms and encouraging the revival of the Herdwick sheep. She worked closely with the National Trust, helping it to acquire land and managed farms with a view of long-term preservation.
Herdwick sheep were a favourite of Beatrix, who did much to promote the breed and was the first woman to be elected president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association, although she died before she took up the chair. Beatrix Potter was passionate about preserving a way of life, but she was an astute and forward-thinking business woman not afraid to make changes where necessary.
She left 14 farms, some with flocks of Herdwick sheep, and over 4,000 acres of countryside to the National Trust.
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Lake District