Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) is best known for her children’s books Peter Rabbit and company but how did these books come to be written? How did failure lead to such an outpouring of these beloved children’s books?
Beatrix, from a very early age was very interested in the natural world around her. With her brother Bertram she would wander around the family garden and when on holiday at Wray Castle, the nearby woods collecting various plants and animals including hedgehogs, rabbits, bats and mice and many types of plants and mushrooms which they would take home and study intently and then draw representations of these finds.
Wray Castle
She is what we would call today a self-taught natural scientist. In fact, she taught herself just about everything with the help of home tutors as she never attended school. School for women during this time in England was considered a waste of time and money.
Beatrix Potters Laboratory
Beatrix came from a wealthy and educated family. Her uncle, a chemist allowed her to use his microscope and she would spend days looking at the various fungi, plants and insects that they had collected and making drawings and paintings of them.
Just like that other great Victorian self trained scientist. Charles Darwin. She used her local environment as her laboratory. Darwin spent 5 years in his back garden studying earth worms.
Entrance hall - Beatrix's holiday home
Beatrix grew into a fine natural scientist, writer and illustrator and spent over 13 years doing research on the interactions between various lifeforms or symbiosis. Beatrix wrote up her findings in a scientific paper and proposed a theory on the connection between fungi and algae and how their life cycles where intertwined.
Ceiling detail
Floor detail
The Failure of male dominated science
The failure of the male dominated scientific community at the time to recognise the work of women as having any scientific value led to years of rejection of her research and findings.
Beatrix was dismissed as a ‘Blue stocking’ a derogatory epithet which suggests ‘an intelligent and well-educated woman who spends their time studying which was not approved of by some men’
Beatrix Potter’s epic work On the Germination of the Spores of the Agaricineae was eventually presented to the scientific community via her uncle to the Linnean Society as they to did not allow women into their establishment.
Imagine sitting by this fire on a cold and windy night with Beatrix and discussing her latest discovery? It must have been very difficult for her to carry on against such ignorance?
Fire side chats
Comfy chair?
Adding value to the community?
When people talk about the ‘value’ of something. It is invariable connected to their own cognitive bias. In this case a piece of ground breaking research in the field of mycology was considered to have no merit or value as it was written by a woman.
It transpired that Beatrix potter was the first person in Britain to postulate the theory of symbiosis in lichen.
How must she have felt to be rejected just because of her sex? It must have been infuriating to say the least.
Turning rejection into success may seem pretty simple to us with 20/20 hindsight. Her work was not appreciated by the adult male scientific community so she switched to a different audience. Children.
Inspirational views
The narrow view she was given
The view she imagined - mulitple options
All of Beatrix Potters stories have a lesson built in and all are based on observations and illustrations that she made of the various creatures that inhabited her environment, and also with the Victorians preoccupation with death.
Peter Rabbit’s father was indeed killed, cooked and eaten in a pie by Mr McGregor.
Beatrix was born in London but spent some holidays with her family here at Wray Castle in the Lake district.
Castle keep
Looking out across this landscape who knows what went through her mind but from this vantage point you can see all the little humans in all the little villages that are around the castle.
Maybe it was from this vantage point that she had the inspiration to create her own worlds where she was in total control of what happened to who, where and when.
Maybe she had her lightbulb moment right under this very chandelier?
Lightbulb moment
Beatrix loved this region and as her books became popular, which was instant by the way. She began to see a way to change the world around her and to protect the environment and wildlife of the region she so loved.
She bought a large farm (Hill Top Farm) in the Lake district and began breeding an endangered breed of sheep. The Herdwick. Her scientific background and knowledge helped to bring this breed back from the brink of extinction. They have evolved as a species to suit this particular environment.
Herdwick Sheep saved from extinction
As the Beatrix Potter book collection grew and made her more money, she bought more farms in the area and eventually owned a huge tract of the region which she bequeathed to an organisation now known as the National Trust in her will.
During her latter years in Cumbria she would often be seen walking around the villages with a coal sack wrapped around her shoulders for protection from the weather.
She would stop and talk to people regardless of their social position in life. There is one story of her chatting with a tramp who was wandering about the village penniless and shunned by all but accepted by Beatrix as just another human being in need of a little humanity and warmth.
Coffee time
Beatrix Potter was a remarkable woman on so many fronts and her determination to be heard is astonishing. An outstanding scientist, environmentalist, acclaimed author and humanitarian are just a few of her attributes.
Her books have been translated into 40+ languages and are just as popular today as when they where written.
Her legacy in terms of the joy she has brought to so many children and adults via her books is impressive enough on it's own but she has also helped to preserve the Lake District in Cumbria so that future generations can enjoy the environment that she so loved and cherished.
Time
It is a beautiful part of the country and will remain pristine thanks to a truly remarkable woman. Beatrix Potter.
A Waterfall in the Lake District
A cruise around Windemere
Rowing boat on the shoreline
Canadian Goose
Tame Swans
We've arrived at our 16th century Air B&B
The beautiful Lake District
Coniston Water in Cumbria
A Steamer on Coniston Water
Sailboat on Coniston Water
A fascinating and comprehensive education on the history of Beatrix Potter - illustrated with superb photography of Wray Castle.
Superb post, really enjoyed reading this story - I knew a little about Beatrix but this is an amazing in-depth article.
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Thanks for reading @c0ff33a I'm glad you enjoyed it.
It is such a beautiful part of our country and thanks to her generosity both we and future generations will get to see it as she did. From that very castle.
You are lucky to have it on your doorstep.
This is perfect! Well wriiten and you have done her story justice! Your photographs of her home and the surrounding area bring her story to life for me. Thank you so much for putting this together. I'm resteeming and sending a
!Tip
Thank you Mel, it's been bugging me for weeks to get this written and I could have gone on for ages about Beatrix. She is an inspirational person in so many fields.
Knowledge is power and she demonstrated that concept perfectly.
Faced with ignorance and prejudice she side stepped the lot of them. 🙌
I'm glad you enjoyed this post and thanks for the tip too. 😋
I'm off for a Wednesday walk to see if I can spot that woodpecker in the local woods. 😊
I never knew she was a scientist as well. I loved how you weaved the story of her life into your visit to the castle. Great post!
Beatrix was an amazing person and her family were very supportive of her studies which was pretty open minded in that kind of society.
I'm glad you found out something new about this remarkable woman.
She finally got recognition for her ground breaking scientific work.
I think I may have found the best cafe on earth :)
and.. I originally read "Beatrix" as Brexit haha.
Brexit Potter! haha I like it. The coffee shop is pretty epic as coffee shops go but the comfy chairs have a long way to go! 😂
https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmayGQE4w5xWrvCGiEG5XRq2oLXVUHgELyYMCx33UmmS1J
OMG haha. I guess those victorian women could sit on anything and it'd be comfy :)
They look like mini hover craft. Jezz, how on earth did they go to the loo??
Who would design such a dumb outfit? Was Karl Largerfeld around in those days? He looks old enough lols
Hehe. Perhaps they could just "go to the loo" while standing there. Nobody would know until the move :)
Largerfeld was born in the 30's - Seems fashion had become more sensible by then hehe.
Yeah the 1730's haha.
These dresses look more like it...if you are stick thin! haha
😂😂😂👍🏻
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Howdy sir molometer! wow, what an amazing story of an amazing woman! I loved the story because so many people would have given up after being shunned like that! And she ended up helping so many and preserving that sheep species and the whole area, it's inspiring. Great job sir!
Yep. Beatrix was quite an indomitable character. I'm sure it would have been great to meet her in person. She was so down to earth but nobody's fool. Glad you enjoyed her story.
A truly inspiring person who actually made the world the way she wanted it in spite of so much opposition.
yes sir molometer, you nailed it by calling her an inspiration, what a role model!
and you did such a great job of presenting her story.
Its beautiful and great place to visit.. thank you for sharing @molometer :)
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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 😂
😆 your welcome 😊
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