I respectfully suggest that before attempting to interpret Beatrix Potter to others, after a single visit to Hill Top, it would have been appropriate to also read an accurate biography - such as Linda Lear's "Beatrix Potter - A life in nature", before jumping to erroneous conclusions - misrepresenting Beatrix's life, as does the Miss Potter film also. You seemingly misunderstand her roots from the very start ... Beatrix's parents were considerably wealthy - the family lived a life of leisured, luxury in South Kensington with their three servants & coachman (when they weren't on multiple, extravagant, extended family holidays for up to half of each year, renting huge houses in large country estates), entirely supported by her father's inherited wealth of around £300,000 (more than £30M in today's money). Beatrix inherited £35,000 of the residue of this on his death in 1914, with much more to follow! (The total royalties from her nineteen books published, over eleven years, by this time, came to less than half this amount). Her snobbish, socially pretentious parents' seeming frustration was being trapped below the glass ceiling of being upper middle class - while Beatrix's maternal cousin Ethel Leech, five years her senior, had married a baronet & was living as Lady Hyde Parker at Melford Hall in its 1200 acre estate in Suffolk. Beatrix's mother herself was worth about £5M in today's money - inherited from Beatrix's maternal grandfather in 1861. Beatrix's maternal grandmother lived a mile away, at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens, with seven servants (in what is now the London home of the Sultan of Brunei - valued at over £120M). Her parent's "social isolation" was compounded by them being Unitarians, albeit exceedingly bad examples - "ducks out of water" in Kensington society!
Beatrix was squeezed between the constraints of chauvinistic Victorian "polite" society & toxic, overbearing, controlling parents. She wasn't in want or need of "a career", neither did she have a "desperation" for her own money! ... But, in common with many women of her time & in her situation - she was a daughter of the "idle rich", she craved self-esteem, approbation, a sense of purpose, independence & intellectual equality with males of the species (or at least not to be patronised). ...Nothing suggests that Beatrix was motivated by money or a need for financial independence other than the minor independence of having her own "spending money". But, the acclaim her books received fulfilled a longing for approbation & "purpose in life". There's no evidence that she even seriously considered her accumulating royalties for the first six books, over three years, until she intended to buy Hill Top in 1905 - anticipating it to be a holiday home in the Lake District for when she'd be Norman Warne, her publisher's wife - living with him in London. Beatrix's brother Bertram didn't intercede with her parents regarding her intended engagement to Norman Warne at age 39, as you state. But her parents did insist on a 12 month "cooling-off" period during which they'd all keep the engagement entirely secret, to save social embarrassment when Beatrix would hopefully see sense & change her mind - but Norman then died a month later.
Beatrix went ahead & bought Hill Top for herself, after his death, knowing that it would be widely considered inappropriate for her to live there as a single woman & that she'd be entirely unable to abandon her demanding, controlling parents - she'd only be allowed to make short, occasional stays there for the next eight years. And, even the purchase of Hill Top, in late 1905, couldn't be achieved with her three year accumulation of royalties alone, (from Peter Rabbit & the five books that followed it). Because she was "gazumped", to meet the asking price, she required a substantial concessionary grant from her Aunt Harriet's will (one of her mother's older sisters, who'd died earlier that year & had, like her mother, inherited £50,000 in 1861 from Beatrix's maternal grandfather, John Leech).
Brother Bertram did however interceded eight years later when her parents were vehemently resisting her intention to then marry Hawkshead solicitor William Heelis, which she finally did at age 47, in 1913. By this time she only owned two farms (Hill Top & Castle Farm - which then became her marital home as Castle Cottage). On her marriage she "re-invented herself", starting afresh as Mrs Heelis - land-owner & sheep farmer, while intending to let "Beatrix Potter" rest in peace, but "Beatrix Potter" the author was too big to "bury" :-)
The greater part of Mrs Heelis's (her second-life persona) sheep farming estate came from her purchase of the 5,000 acre Monk Coniston Estate (at a cost of £18,000 for just short of 1% of the Lake District), that wasn't acquired until 1930, when she was 64 - purchased with a substantial portion of inherited, family money. This same year saw publication of the last of the final four "Little Books", published following her marriage, over the thirteen year period from 1917 - initially to help her publishers out of financial difficulties (but for which she then struggled to receive payment of royalties).
One of Beatrix's greatest mentors, from age sixteen & instrumental in persuading Frederick Warne & Co to publish Peter Rabbit in 1902, was National Trust co-founder Hardwicke Rawnsley (who died in 1920 with Beatrix having been the unrequited love of his life). From the very beginning, Beatrix had bought her land & farms, saving them from possible exploitation or developement, with the National Trust as the intended final beneficiary, after she'd made her living from them during her lifetime - while also discreetly gifting properties & assets to them during her later life. Her legacy & overall contribution to the National Trust was huge & comprises several percent of the land they own in The Lake District. And, The National Trust's HQ in Swindon is named "Heelis" in her honour. However, this had nothing to do with the creation of The Lake District National Park, designated in 1951 by the post war Labour government, entirely by act of parliament, with the stated aim of making Britain "a land fit for heroes to live in". ... In fact, Beatrix articulately made-known her serious disapproval of the concept for creating UK National Parks - that was already being discussed before she died in December 1943!
Thank you for this post on Beatrix Potter! Just have to mention and recommend the series by Susan Wittig Albert called The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. There are eight books in the series in which Beatrix solves mysteries with help from her animal friends. There are eight books. All are delightful and set in the Lake District around Hilltop Farm. Highly recommended!
Beatrix's sketchbook looks amazing, as are your sketches, especially the sheep. I love them. I also love that you researched her before visiting - adds a depth to the visit of an historical place, I think. I What an interesting woman and hurrah for her for leaving property and sheep to the National Trust. What a gal. Great post, Amy.
I'm glad you enjoyed your jaunt thru the Lake Country, and I enjoyed your newsletter on Beatrix Potter! I love her Peter Rabbit books, and naturalist drawings, and have particularly enjoyed a 'reproduction' of her journal from 1882, when she was 16, to 1909 when she met her future husband: Beatrix Potter A Journal, published in 2006. Another book, copyrighted 2013, Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life, introduced me to her favorite plants and places. I've always been interested in children's literature and occasionally come across copies of Peter Rabbit-like stories in older anthologies, without attribution to Beatrix Potter, or any indication of copyright. Which is how I learned some of the early history of that practice. We're fortunate as artists and writers that the concept and global reach of copyright eventually evolved into the much more protective laws we have today.
Loved this. I’ve been to hilltop a few times and love Beatrix Potter’s work. I am sure it was an influence in the style I have developed. Miss Potter is a great film 👏
Thank you for that mini biography of Potter! I have always loved her books, of course, but knew nothing of her life. I guess I had a vague idea that she was somehow independently wealthy and could write and illustrate children's books in her ample leisure time. Instead, she turns out to be more like the rest of us: Hard working, with varied interests, resourceful enough to figure out how to get what she wanted, and brave enough to pursue it. And in her case, she had to buck the trend of what society (and her parents) decided she should be doing with her life. Brava, Beatrix!
This is fascinating and there's something so satisfying about this woman who wrote cuddly children books doing it almost exclusively for the money and to buy her own independence. A good reminder that money is always a means to an end, whatever that end may be for you.
I respectfully suggest that before attempting to interpret Beatrix Potter to others, after a single visit to Hill Top, it would have been appropriate to also read an accurate biography - such as Linda Lear's "Beatrix Potter - A life in nature", before jumping to erroneous conclusions - misrepresenting Beatrix's life, as does the Miss Potter film also. You seemingly misunderstand her roots from the very start ... Beatrix's parents were considerably wealthy - the family lived a life of leisured, luxury in South Kensington with their three servants & coachman (when they weren't on multiple, extravagant, extended family holidays for up to half of each year, renting huge houses in large country estates), entirely supported by her father's inherited wealth of around £300,000 (more than £30M in today's money). Beatrix inherited £35,000 of the residue of this on his death in 1914, with much more to follow! (The total royalties from her nineteen books published, over eleven years, by this time, came to less than half this amount). Her snobbish, socially pretentious parents' seeming frustration was being trapped below the glass ceiling of being upper middle class - while Beatrix's maternal cousin Ethel Leech, five years her senior, had married a baronet & was living as Lady Hyde Parker at Melford Hall in its 1200 acre estate in Suffolk. Beatrix's mother herself was worth about £5M in today's money - inherited from Beatrix's maternal grandfather in 1861. Beatrix's maternal grandmother lived a mile away, at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens, with seven servants (in what is now the London home of the Sultan of Brunei - valued at over £120M). Her parent's "social isolation" was compounded by them being Unitarians, albeit exceedingly bad examples - "ducks out of water" in Kensington society!
Beatrix was squeezed between the constraints of chauvinistic Victorian "polite" society & toxic, overbearing, controlling parents. She wasn't in want or need of "a career", neither did she have a "desperation" for her own money! ... But, in common with many women of her time & in her situation - she was a daughter of the "idle rich", she craved self-esteem, approbation, a sense of purpose, independence & intellectual equality with males of the species (or at least not to be patronised). ...Nothing suggests that Beatrix was motivated by money or a need for financial independence other than the minor independence of having her own "spending money". But, the acclaim her books received fulfilled a longing for approbation & "purpose in life". There's no evidence that she even seriously considered her accumulating royalties for the first six books, over three years, until she intended to buy Hill Top in 1905 - anticipating it to be a holiday home in the Lake District for when she'd be Norman Warne, her publisher's wife - living with him in London. Beatrix's brother Bertram didn't intercede with her parents regarding her intended engagement to Norman Warne at age 39, as you state. But her parents did insist on a 12 month "cooling-off" period during which they'd all keep the engagement entirely secret, to save social embarrassment when Beatrix would hopefully see sense & change her mind - but Norman then died a month later.
Beatrix went ahead & bought Hill Top for herself, after his death, knowing that it would be widely considered inappropriate for her to live there as a single woman & that she'd be entirely unable to abandon her demanding, controlling parents - she'd only be allowed to make short, occasional stays there for the next eight years. And, even the purchase of Hill Top, in late 1905, couldn't be achieved with her three year accumulation of royalties alone, (from Peter Rabbit & the five books that followed it). Because she was "gazumped", to meet the asking price, she required a substantial concessionary grant from her Aunt Harriet's will (one of her mother's older sisters, who'd died earlier that year & had, like her mother, inherited £50,000 in 1861 from Beatrix's maternal grandfather, John Leech).
Brother Bertram did however interceded eight years later when her parents were vehemently resisting her intention to then marry Hawkshead solicitor William Heelis, which she finally did at age 47, in 1913. By this time she only owned two farms (Hill Top & Castle Farm - which then became her marital home as Castle Cottage). On her marriage she "re-invented herself", starting afresh as Mrs Heelis - land-owner & sheep farmer, while intending to let "Beatrix Potter" rest in peace, but "Beatrix Potter" the author was too big to "bury" :-)
The greater part of Mrs Heelis's (her second-life persona) sheep farming estate came from her purchase of the 5,000 acre Monk Coniston Estate (at a cost of £18,000 for just short of 1% of the Lake District), that wasn't acquired until 1930, when she was 64 - purchased with a substantial portion of inherited, family money. This same year saw publication of the last of the final four "Little Books", published following her marriage, over the thirteen year period from 1917 - initially to help her publishers out of financial difficulties (but for which she then struggled to receive payment of royalties).
One of Beatrix's greatest mentors, from age sixteen & instrumental in persuading Frederick Warne & Co to publish Peter Rabbit in 1902, was National Trust co-founder Hardwicke Rawnsley (who died in 1920 with Beatrix having been the unrequited love of his life). From the very beginning, Beatrix had bought her land & farms, saving them from possible exploitation or developement, with the National Trust as the intended final beneficiary, after she'd made her living from them during her lifetime - while also discreetly gifting properties & assets to them during her later life. Her legacy & overall contribution to the National Trust was huge & comprises several percent of the land they own in The Lake District. And, The National Trust's HQ in Swindon is named "Heelis" in her honour. However, this had nothing to do with the creation of The Lake District National Park, designated in 1951 by the post war Labour government, entirely by act of parliament, with the stated aim of making Britain "a land fit for heroes to live in". ... In fact, Beatrix articulately made-known her serious disapproval of the concept for creating UK National Parks - that was already being discussed before she died in December 1943!
Thank you for this post on Beatrix Potter! Just have to mention and recommend the series by Susan Wittig Albert called The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. There are eight books in the series in which Beatrix solves mysteries with help from her animal friends. There are eight books. All are delightful and set in the Lake District around Hilltop Farm. Highly recommended!
Great post! You bring her to life 🧡
Beatrix's sketchbook looks amazing, as are your sketches, especially the sheep. I love them. I also love that you researched her before visiting - adds a depth to the visit of an historical place, I think. I What an interesting woman and hurrah for her for leaving property and sheep to the National Trust. What a gal. Great post, Amy.
I'm glad you enjoyed your jaunt thru the Lake Country, and I enjoyed your newsletter on Beatrix Potter! I love her Peter Rabbit books, and naturalist drawings, and have particularly enjoyed a 'reproduction' of her journal from 1882, when she was 16, to 1909 when she met her future husband: Beatrix Potter A Journal, published in 2006. Another book, copyrighted 2013, Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life, introduced me to her favorite plants and places. I've always been interested in children's literature and occasionally come across copies of Peter Rabbit-like stories in older anthologies, without attribution to Beatrix Potter, or any indication of copyright. Which is how I learned some of the early history of that practice. We're fortunate as artists and writers that the concept and global reach of copyright eventually evolved into the much more protective laws we have today.
Beatrix Potter is my hero! Thank you for sharing her story.
Love this !
Thanks to your idea, I'm doing an "artist residency" in the Bay of Naples area for 2 weeks. How can I post my drawings here?
Beatrix Potter to Jeff VanderMeer: Amy, your range never ceases to amaze! Looking forward to Powell's on the 24th.
Terry
Loved this. I’ve been to hilltop a few times and love Beatrix Potter’s work. I am sure it was an influence in the style I have developed. Miss Potter is a great film 👏
Loved this. The bio by Linda Lear—Beatrix Potter: a Life in Nature—is fabulous.
I really enjoyed the background on Beatrix. Thank you for that.
Thank you for that mini biography of Potter! I have always loved her books, of course, but knew nothing of her life. I guess I had a vague idea that she was somehow independently wealthy and could write and illustrate children's books in her ample leisure time. Instead, she turns out to be more like the rest of us: Hard working, with varied interests, resourceful enough to figure out how to get what she wanted, and brave enough to pursue it. And in her case, she had to buck the trend of what society (and her parents) decided she should be doing with her life. Brava, Beatrix!
This is fascinating and there's something so satisfying about this woman who wrote cuddly children books doing it almost exclusively for the money and to buy her own independence. A good reminder that money is always a means to an end, whatever that end may be for you.