Beatrix Potter, children’s book author and creator, created well known characters like Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggywinkle and Jeremy Fisher the frog. They made her world famous, but she gave up writing and illustrating later in life and went to farm in the Lake District, in NW England.
There, she became a familiar sight tramping around the countryside in all weathers, tending her prize-winning flocks of Herdwick sheep.
Beatrix’s Home, Hill Top
Her Lake District home, Hill Top, is one of the Lake District’s most charming visitor attractions. Now owned by the National Trust, it is an old stone cottage, built in the 17th century.
It stands in a grove of trees amidst a green and wooded landscape. Although it’s beautifully cared for, it has not been modernised at all, and has many small signs of age – the dents in the wood, the worn stone-flagged floors, the creaking wood panelling and the cosy rooms.
Spinning Wheel and Red Geraniums
Its heart is the parlour, or main living room, with its big old fireplace dominating the scene. Beatrix’s shawl and clogs lie in the parlour, giving the impression that she’s just come in from outside. The spinning wheel on which she spun the wool of her beloved sheep stands nearby.
On the window sills, red geraniums grow, horse-brasses adorn the walls. Some of her favorite ornaments are on display – characters from her books cast in bronze, a miniature china tea set, a fully furnished doll’s house and all kinds of personal memorabilia: tiny jugs, pots, bracelets, pendants.
You can even peep into her bedroom, complete with patchwork quilt on the small four-poster bed – a strangely modest and unpretentious place for a lady with such a big personality.
Beatrix Potter's Creative Hideaway
The cottage was re-created for the movie “Miss Potter, ” but it also features in many of her books. In fact, she did not live there for long, although it always had a special place in her heart. In fact, it was her creative hideaway.
Before she started full time farming, she used the cottage as a holiday home and wrote and illustrated many of her most famous books there.
Fans like to tour the cottage spotting places that appear in the illustrations. The wooden porch covered with huge pink roses appears in The Tale of Tom Kitten; the grandfather clock can be seen in The Tailor of Gloucester, while the beautiful garden appears in many of her pictures.
Childhood Passions
Beatrix first visited the Lake District as a child, for her parents went there on holiday from their main home in London. Perhaps this is why she chose it later on, for it was in the Lakes which opened her eyes to the extent of the animal, bird and insect life that flourished in the countryside.
Trapped in London
Her life trapped in London had been repressed and dull. Friends were discouraged and she was not allowed to go to school. Luckily she got on well with her brother and the pair of them observed wild creatures from their London garden and kept little pets – a one time, they had a green frog, a rabbit, two lizards, a snake, water newts, and a tortoise! Beatrix bought her first rabbit, Benjamin Bouncer, to the London house, smuggling him inside in a paper bag. He was “extremely fond of hot buttered toast, he used to hurry into the drawing room when he heard the tea-bell!" she said. later
A Generous Gift
Now, many Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Rabbit lookalikes abound in the fields around Hill Top. Beatrix left 4000 acres of land to the National Trust on her death, and her generosity and foresight ensures that her work and her passions will never be forgotten.
If you like old fashioned children's classics, check out this article on Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland.
Jennifer Woolf - Jennifer Woolf
Join the Conversation