by Linda Lear
14. ‘Sprays of Regal Pelargonium, including Buds’ (Pelargonium x domesticum), 1886. Painted at Camfield Place. Beatrix gave this beautiful watercolour to Miss Hammond, the governess who encouraged her interest in art and remained a lifelong friend.
15. Cedar at Birds’ Place, Camfield Place. A pen-and-ink rendering of a cherished old cedar at her grandfather’s estate. The drawing speaks to Beatrix’s lifelong fascination with trees and her careful observation of how they grew. She used it as the headpiece to chapter VII of The Fairy Caravan, published in 1929, writing: ‘In the middle of the mossy grass plot stood the glory of the garden – the cedar.’
16. ‘Leaves and Flowers of the Orchid Cactus’ (Epiphyllum phylanthus), 1886. A little-known watercolour of one of Grandmother Potter’s much admired orchid cacti, painted at Camfield and given to Miss Hammond in 1887. Beatrix enjoyed this plant and grew several varieties at Castle Cottage. (Collection of Charles Ryskamp.)
17. Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, the chemist, Beatrix’s multi-talented uncle and scientific promoter.
18. ‘A Dream of Toasted Cheese’, 1899. Beatrix drew these mice cavorting in a chemistry laboratory as a gift for her Uncle Harry, and he proudly published the drawing in his autobiography.
19. ‘The Toads’ Tea Party’, 1902? Beatrix’s interest in fungi and toads is transformed in fantasy to illustrate the rhyme ‘If acorn cups were tea cups’. The tansy cake stands on a toadstool table and the stools are part of a bracket fungus. The drawing was intended for the 1905 book of rhymes.
20. Grisette (Amanita vaginatus) 1893, painted at Eastwood and undoubtedly given to Charles McIntosh. Although Beatrix does not show sections of this mushroom, her mastery of technique captures both the texture of the gills and its delicate colour.
21. Charles McIntosh of Inver, the Perthshire naturalist who was Beatrix’s mentor in drawing and identifying fungi and her first scientific collaborator.
22. Peter Rabbit and Mr McGregor, the latter perhaps modelled on the learned but shy McIntosh.
23. Old Man of the Woods (Strobilomyces strobilaceus), 3 September [1893], Eastwood. Beatrix drew a map on the reverse to indicate to McIntosh where she found and painted this rare fungus.
24. Noel Moore, the little boy to whom the famous picture letter about Peter Rabbit was written on 4 September 1893, the day after finding the rare mushroom at Eastwood.
25. George Massee, the cytogamic botanist at Kew. His reputation was on the wane, but he was finally convinced that Beatrix’s theory of symbiosis had merit. He gave her entrée to the Linnean Society so that her paper ‘On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae’ could be considered.
26. William T. Thistelton-Dyer, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, whom Beatrix described as having a ‘dry, cynical manner’, was not inclined to give standing to amateur mycologists, especially if young and female.
27. Larch canker (Lachnellula wilkommii), Esthwaite, 1896. Beatrix has drawn the ascospores, speculating in a letter to McIntosh as to the progression of the fungus on a fallen larch branch.
28. Sheet Web spider (Linyphia triangularis), 1896. One of a set of educational lithographs prepared for Caroline Martineau and Emma Cons for classes at the Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women. The spider is drawn at different magnifications detailing its entomological structure.
29. Eight fossils, including corals, from the Applethwaite beds, Troutbeck, 1895. Like other nineteenth-century naturalists, Beatrix photographed and then painted the fossils she collected. Laying them out on the page with artistry, she rendered the fossils with realism showing both detail and texture.
30. A street of shops leading down to the sea, Lyme Regis, Dorset (1904). Beatrix drew several versions of the shops lining the steep street where she went on holiday, providing in each a detailed rendering of the old seaside town.
31. ‘Three little mice sat down to spin’, c. 1892. One of a series of unpublished drawings for an illustrated booklet. The Bentwood chairs, similar to one in her bedroom at Camfield, reflect her love of good design. The loom, spinning wheels and distaffs were familiar to the granddaughter of a textile merchant.
32. Staircase at Bedwell Lodge, 1891. Shortly before the death of Jessy Potter, the family stayed near Hatfield at Bedwell Lodge, an architecturally interesting house with a fine panelled staircase and newel posts that provided Beatrix with an opportunity to experiment with light and perspective.
33. Welsh dresser, Gwaynynog, 1903. Beatrix painted this fine oak dresser, dated 1696, at the home of her Burton relatives at Denbigh, Wales, where she frequently stayed. She also admired her uncle’s taste in mahogany.
34. ‘The Rabbits’ Potting Shed’, 1891. The Bedwell Lodge potting shed in Hatfield was replete with geraniums, garden tools and flowerpots. Beatrix used the background as a model for Mr McGregor’s potting shed in The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
35. Norman Warne, 1898, Beatrix’s publisher at Frederick Warne & Co., her first love and, briefly until his death, her fiancé.
36. ‘A November day’, c. 1905, a sombre rendering of Bolton Gardens at dusk as seen from Beatrix’s schoolroom window. It reflects her attitude towards her ‘unloved birthplace’ and her mood after Norman Warne’s death in August 1905.
37. ‘Old Mr. Prickly Pin’, c. 1902. This hedgehog has been identified as Mrs Tiggy-winkle’s uncle. Fascinated by the habits of hedgehogs and devoted to those she tamed, Beatrix thought this ‘about the best drawing I ever made’.
38. ‘Guinea pigs go gardening’, 1893. These charming gardeners are modelled after the guinea pigs Beatrix borrowed from her friend Miss Paget, the nursing reformer. She used them later in Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes (1922).
39. ‘The chimney stack stood up above the roof like a little stone tower’, from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (1908). Beatrix liked the view from the roof of Hill Top, where she could see the stone walls marching up the fells.
40. Mouse threading a needle, from The Tailor of Gloucester (1903). This tale was always Beatrix’s personal favourite. She copied the elaborately embroidered satin waistcoat from one in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
41. Painted Lady and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies (Vanessa cardui and Aglais urticae), with magnified scales of the lower and upper sides of the wing, 1887.
42. ‘Miss Butterfly’, the Red Admiral butterfly tasting the sugar, from The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910). Beatrix adapted her interest in natural history to create many characters that appear in the tales.
43. ‘Jemima Puddle-duck was not much in the habit of flying’, from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908). Beatrix liked to say that this was how the villagers saw her when she first came to Hill Top, always rushing noisily about.
44. Beatrix with Kep, 1913. Beatrix, wearing her familiar Herdwick tweed skirt and jacket, was photographed in her Hill Top Farm garden with her favourite collie by a visiting American, Charles G. Y. King, just four months before her marriage to William Heelis.
45. ‘An entrance gate in a wall, with a background of fields and trees’, Laund House, Bolton Abbey, a painting included in her 1902 sketchbook. Beatrix was impressed with the trees on the Abbey grounds.
46. Hill Top Farm, 1940. The war years were difficult for farmers. Beatrix adapted to wartime restrictions in crops and livestock, but she was anxious that her sheep and cattle should have enough fodder. She adopted modern harvesting equipment, but refused to have electricity in the farmhouse
47. Sawrey village under snow, 1909. Beatrix enjoyed painting the landscapes and buildings that she loved under the cover of snow. Intrigued by the variations of light in each season, she gave snow a realistic depth and texture.
48. Beatrix and William, photographed by Rupert Potter at Bolton Gardens the day before their wedding on 15 October 1913. Theirs was a close and happy marriage of thirty years.
49. Pigwig and Pigling Bland escape. The Tale of Pigling Bland was finished just before Beatrix’s marriage to William in 1913 and published just after.
There is a romantic element to the tale of the little black pig and the shy Pigling Bland, although Beatrix rejected the suggestion that it was autobiographical.
50. Background for the frontispiece for The Tale of Pigling Bland. During their extended courtship, Beatrix and William frequently walked by this crossroads behind Hill Top. It represented both a particular moment in her life and the choice between duty and happiness.
51. Castle Cottage. Beatrix bought Castle Farm, which was almost directly across the road from Hill Top, in 1909. When she married, she remodelled the larger farmhouse and used Hill Top, where she kept her favourite collections, as a place of retreat where she could draw and write.
52. Garden steps at Fawe Park, Derwentwater, 1903. Beatrix used these steps, bordered by red carnations and leading to the terraced garden at Fawe Park, as a background for The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904). She considered it a ‘scribble’.
53. Onions at Fawe Park, Derwentwater, 1903. Beatrix drew several variations of the onions in the garden at Fawe Park.
54. Beatrix Potter and Tom Storey with their prize-winning ewe, c. 1930. Tom Storey left Troutbeck Park in 1927 to become Beatrix’s farm manager at Hill Top Farm. There he bred a line of Herdwick ewes which took top prizes for two decades at the agricultural shows, much to Beatrix’s delight.
55. Study of a sheep’s head. Beatrix drew her sheep and cattle with obvious pleasure. Her skill impressed her shepherds.
56. Mrs Heelis at the Keswick sheep show, 1935, dressed in her best Herdwick tweeds, watching the judging intently. Her passion for raising Herdwick led her to preserve the culture of fell farming. She was elected president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders’ Association for 1944 but did not live to serve.
57. Beatrix frequently walked out on the Troutbeck Tongue where the quality of the land never failed to lift her spirits and inspire her imagination. The best of the Fairy Caravan tales are set out on the Tongue.
58. View across Esthwaite Water to hills and mountains, 1909. Beatrix considered Esthwaite Water the most beautiful of the smaller lakes and painted it in every season.
59. (Above left) Bertha Mahony (Miller), 1929, one of the founders of The Bookshop for Boys and Girls in Boston, Massachusetts, and the editor of The Horn Book. Through her network, many interesting Americans called on Beatrix in Sawrey. Although they never met, Bertha and Beatrix had parallel lives and shared common interests. Bertha promoted Beatrix’s work in America.
60. (Above right) Marian Frazer Harris Perry, the wealthy Philadelphia widow, was a welcome visitor to the Heelis home and became a trusted friend and frequent correspondent. Like Beatrix, Marian had married late in life. She admired Beatrix’s books, but was equally impressed with her accomplishments as a countrywoman.
61. The Eller-Tree Camp from The Fairy Caravan (1929).
62. Xarifa’s tale from The Fairy Caravan (1929).
63. Beatrix and a group of Girl Guides, 1932. Beatrix supported the interests of young women who wanted to learn and enjoy the countryside, and allowed them to camp on her land. She enjoyed visiting the girls, listening to their singing and watching them grow.
64. Caricature of Beatrix and a pig leaning on a fence, c. 1924. Beatrix enjoyed drawing her pigs and made a house pet of several favourites. She drew one such caricature of herself and her pig to amuse Josefina Banner and another to mock the annoying confusion between herself and the socialist Beatrice Potter Webb.
65. ICAA Christmas card, 1932. Beatrix contributed an annual drawing to the Invalid Children’s Aid Association which the charity sold as a Christmas card to support the invalid children’s hospitals. Her signed card for 1932 shows her animal characters dancing around a Christmas tree.
66. The board for Peter Rabbit’s Race Game (1919). Beatrix was a natural merchandiser. She devised the first Peter Rabbit game with a board and rules in 1904, but Warne decided not to market it. Mary Warne elaborated this version to help bring the company back from financial ruin.
67. Beatrix with her Pekinese, Tzusee and Chuleh, 1943. As an older woman, Beatrix enjoyed these little dogs and found them convenient footwarmers when she was forced to stay in bed with bronchitis.
68. Beatrix and her shepherd. Crippled by her surgeries and vulnerable to the cold, Beatrix nevertheless came out to watch her sheep and talk to her shepherds.
69. Beatrix as an old woman at Hill Top. Whenever she could, she came across the meadow to work on her portfolios or to arrange her treasures at Hill Top. She hoped it would be preserved as she had left it.
Select Bibliography
Books by Beatrix Potter
(published by Frederick Warne, unless otherwise noted)
1901 The Tale of Peter Rabbit (privately printed)
1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
1902 The Tailor of Gloucester (privately printed)
1903 The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
1903 The Tailor of Gloucester
1904 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
1904 The Tale of Two Bad Mice
1905 The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
1905 The Tale of The Pie and The Patty-Pan
1906 The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1906 The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit
1906 The Story of Miss Moppet
1907 The Tale of Tom Kitten
1908 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
1908 The Roly-Poly Pudding; later renamed The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
1909 The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
1909 The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
1910 The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse
1911 Peter Rabbit’s Painting Book
1911 The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
1912 The Tale of Mr. Tod
1913 The Tale of Pigling Bland
1917 Tom Kitten’s Painting Book
1917 Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes
1918 The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
1922 Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes
1925 Jemima Puddle-Duck’s Painting Book
1928 Peter Rabbit’s Almanac for 1929
1929 The Fairy Caravan (David McKay, Philadelphia)
1929 The Fairy Caravan (privately printed)
1930 The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (David McKay, Philadelphia, and Frederick Warne)
1932 Sister Anne, with illustrations by Katharine Sturges (David McKay, Philadelphia)
1944 Wag-by-Wall (The Horn Book, Boston)
Editions of Beatrix Potter’s Work
Potter, Beatrix, The Art of Beatrix Potter, selected and arranged by Leslie Linder and W. A. Herring (London: Frederick Warne, 1955; second edition, 1972).
Potter, Beatrix, Beatrix Potter Artist & Illustrator, paintings and drawings selected by Anne Stevenson Hobbs (London: Frederick Warne, 2005).
Potter, Beatrix, The Beatrix Potter Collection of Lloyd Cotsen (Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional Press, 2004).
Potter, Beatrix, Beatrix Potter’s Americans: Selected Letters, edited by Jane Crowell Morse (Boston: Horn Book, 1982).
Potter, Beatrix, Beatrix Potter’s Art: Paintings and Drawings, edited by Anne Stevenson Hobbs (London: Frederick Warne, 1989).
Potter, Beatrix, Beatrix Potter’s Farming Friendship: Lake District Letters to Joseph Moscrop, 1926–1943, edited by Judy Taylor (London: Beatrix Potter Society, 1998).
Potter, Beatrix, Beatrix Potter’s Letters, selected by Judy Taylor (London: Frederick Warne, 1989).
Potter, Beatrix, The Choyce Letters: Beatrix Potter to Louie Choyce, 1916–1943, edited by Judy Taylor (London: Beatrix Potter Society, 1994).
Potter, Beatrix, Dear Ivy, Dear June: Letters from Beatrix Potter, edited by Margaret Crawford Maloney (Toronto: Toronto Public Library, 1977).
Potter, Beatrix, The Derwentwater Sketchbook, 1903, facsimile (London: Frederick Warne, 1984).
Potter, Beatrix, A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter, edited by Leslie Linder (London: Frederick Warne, 1981, revised edition, 1987).
Potter, Beatrix, A Holiday Diary: With a Short History o
f the Warne Family, edited and written by Judy Taylor (London: Beatrix Potter Society, 1996).
Potter, Beatrix, The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881–1897, transcribed from her code writings by Leslie Linder (London: Frederick Warne, 1966; revised edition, 1989).
Potter, Beatrix, Letters to Children from Beatrix Potter, edited by Judy Taylor (London: Frederick Warne, 1992).
Biography and Criticism
Albert, Susan Wittig, The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Hill Top Farm; The Tale of Holly How; The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood (New York: Berkley, 2004, 2005, 2006).
Avery, Gillian, ‘Beatrix Potter and Social Comedy’, Rylands University of Manchester Bulletin, 76/3 (Autumn 1994), 185–200.
Bartlett, Wynne K., and Whalley, Joyce Irene, Beatrix Potter’s Derwentwater (London: Frederick Warne, 1988; revised edition: Leading Edge, 1995).
Battrick, Elizabeth, Beatrix Potter: The Unknown Years (London: Armitt Library & Museum Centre; F. Warne & Co., 1999).
Battrick, Elizabeth, The Real World of Beatrix Potter (Norwich: National Trust and Jarrold Publishing, 1987).
Beatrix Potter Society Studies, i–xi (London: Beatrix Potter Society, 1984–2005).
Clark, Keith, Beatrix Potter’s Gloucester (London: Frederick Warne, 1988).