She used her own pet rabbit, Peter, as a model for her drawings. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first written as a 'story letter' by Beatrix to the son of a former governess. Other holidays were taken at large Lakeland houses including Lingholm and Fawe Park near Keswick, Holehird near Windermere, and Lakefield (now Eeswyke) in Near Sawrey. However, they rented Wray Castle when Beatrix was 16 which gave the girl her first taste of the Lake District. ![]() Holidays in the LakesĮvery summer, the family took a three-month holiday, usually to Scotland. Beatrix was educated at home by a governess, and she and her brother were expected to marry well or to stay at home and manage the care of their parents in old age. As children, she and her younger brother, Bertram, loved natural history and art. A bit about Beatrixīeatrix Potter was born in 1866 to a wealthy family in London. Visit the Lake District to discover the impact Beatrix Potter had on this beautiful landscape, walk in her footsteps and explore the many destinations she held dear to see how she made her mark on the national park. Without her visionary thinking, the Lake District might have been a very different place today. However, fewer people realise that Beatrix was also a talented botanist, illustrator, farm manager, conservationist and shrewd businesswoman. Her last storybook was The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, published in 1930.Beatrix Potter is best known as the celebrated children's author and creator of Peter Rabbit. She did not immediately give up her book work, but the demands of farming on her time and her failing eyesight meant that new works tended to be pieced together from drawings made many years earlier. She employed the shepherd Tom Storey, and soon the flocks across the farms she managed were thriving. These hardy sheep could withstand the harsh winter conditions and were taught over generations to remain within their particular part of the unfenced fell. Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley (1851 – 1920) introduced Beatrix to the endangered Herdwick sheep breed that had helped to shape the fells through grazing for thousands of years. Ten years later she bought a substantial sheep farm, Troutbeck Park, in 1923. At last, she was able to throw herself more fully into farming. After a period of battling her parents' objections to her relationship with a country solicitor, Beatrix married William in 1913 and settled permanently in the Lake District at Castle Cottage. In 1909, through purchasing another Cumbrian property, Castle Farm (near to Hill Top), Potter met and then befriended a local solicitor, William Heelis. She speaks of nothing but smoothness, softness, breaking the colours, and the lightness of the shadows, till there is nothing left". She wrote in her Journal on 29 November 1883: "Do not like my drawing lessons. Twelve lessons in oil painting from an artist known only as 'Mrs A' made her ambivalent about the teaching method. ![]() If you and your master are determined to look at nature and art in two different directions you are sure to stick". She was sceptical about formal art training, writing on : "Painting is an awkward thing to teach except the details of the medium. Beatrix's student pieces from this period included still life studies and exercises in design and perspective, in typically formal style. She also took examinations at the National Art Training School attached to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the V&A). ![]() By June 1883, at the age of 16, she "thought to cutting off more and more time for painting" and between November 1878 and May 1883 her parents arranged for her to have drawing lessons. She studied geometry, geography, French and German, and Latin poetry. Once Bertram went to boarding school, Beatrix was left to continue her education at home on her own.
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