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SOME
PLACES TO VISIT
UK
- Scotland
If
you are interested in Beatrix Potter as a natural historian and
artist,
you may like to visit some of these locations:
Few
people realise the importance and influence of Scotland on
Beatrix Potter's life. As a child Beatrix and her family enjoyed
long summer holidays in the Birnam area of Perthshire. Staying
in the countryside, away from the more formal life they led
in London, Beatrix and her young brother, Bertram, were able
to study the local wildlife. It was from Eastwood, Dunkeld,
in 1893 that Beatrix wrote the now famous picture letter to
Noel Moore which was later to become The Tale of Peter
Rabbit.
The following day she wrote a letter to Noel’s brother,
Eric, about a frog called Jeremy Fisher. People she had met
there on holiday inspired the loveable characters of Mrs. Tiggy-winkle
and Mr. Jeremy Fisher.
Beatrix Potter
is renowned not only as an author and illustrator, but also as
an eminent scientist. During her time in the Birnam area she met
and formed a special friendship with Charles McIntosh - the Perthshire
Naturalist - sharing a mutual interest in fungi and wildlife.
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The
Birnam Institute houses a wonderful exhibition telling the
tale of this 'Fascinating Acquaintance', and the nearby
Beatrix Potter Garden magically recreates the lovely countryside
which so impressed the young Beatrix Potter and features
flowers, fungi and characters associated with her relationship
with the area. Footpaths lead past the houses of Mr. Tod
and Mrs. Tiggy-winkle , alongside the stream and pond where
Mr. Jeremy Fisher lives and 'Peter Rabbit's burrow'.
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Yellow
Grisette (Amanita crocea) and Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria),
painted by Beatrix Potter in September 1897
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The
Birnam Institute, Exhibition Centre and Garden, Station Road,
Birnam, Perthshire. Telephone
01350 727674, email admin@birnaminstitute.com.
Website www.birnaminstitute.com
Dunkeld,
Birnam, Inver and The Hermitage (National Trust for Scotland),
Perthshire.
This is the area where Charles McIntosh lived and
where Beatrix and he met when she was staying at Dalguise House.
Maps and leaflets for self-guided walks are available. Tel. 01350
727688
Perth
Museum and Art Gallery
The collection contains 25 of Beatrix Potter's
watercolour studies of fungi as well as specimens, correspondence
and memorabilia belonging to Charles McIntosh. Appointments are
necessary to view items not on permanent display.
Tel.
01738 632488, email museum@pkc.gov.uk.
Website www.pkc.gov.uk
UK
- Cumbria

Waterlilies
on Esthwaite Water, 1906
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The name of Beatrix Potter is firmly linked
with the English Lake District, and with Sawrey and Hawkshead
in particular, for it was in this beautiful part of England
that she wrote many of her children's books and here that
she spent the last thirty years of her life, having married
solicitor William Heelis in 1913.
If you are interested
in Beatrix Potter's life in the Lake District and the
illustrations
for the Tales, you may like to visit these sites in
the English Lake District:
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Hill
Top, Near Sawrey, Ambleside, Cumbria
This was Beatrix Potter's first house in the Lake
District and is now in the care of
the National Trust and open (seasonally)
to the public. Tel:
015394 36269, Email: hilltop@nationaltrust.org.uk Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk
The Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead, Cumbria
The award-winning Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead houses an annually changing exhibition of Beatrix Potter's delicate watercolours in the restored premises of William Heelis's offices in the Main Street. Parts of William Heelis's offices have been recreated with some of the original furniture and furnishings.
Today the Gallery is operated by The National Trust and is open (seasonally) to the public.
Tel. 015394 36355, Email:beatrixpottergallery@ntrust.org.uk Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Information on the opening days and times at both these properties appears on the What’s On … page of this website.
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World
of Beatrix Potter, Bowness on Windermere, Cumbria
An annually changing exhibition bringing Beatrix
Potter's characters and settings to life, with videos telling
her lifestory and featuring in particular her connections with
National Trust . Tel.
015394 88444 www.hop-skip-jump.com
The Armitt Collection, Ambleside, Cumbria
The library contains a large collection of Beatrix Potter's fungi, natural history and archaeological watercolours and drawings and there is a display on her life in the museum. Appointments are necessary to view items not on permanent display. Tel. 015394 31212
UK
- London and the South
Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
A large collection of Beatrix Potter's watercolours
(including childhood sketchbooks), photographs and letters.
Appointments
are necessary to view the many items not on public display.
Contact
the Frederick Warne Curator (Emma Laws) Tel.
0207 608 0281 x 212 Website www.nal.vam.ac.uk
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House of the Tailor of Gloucester
The historic building, on which Beatrix Potter based her illustration of the Tailor's house, is situated close to Gloucester Cathedral and was painted by her when she visited the city. She used her illustrations together with a local folk tale (about a tailor who tried to finish a magnificent waistcoat for the Mayor's wedding one Christmas Day) as the basis for the third of her Peter Rabbit books, The Tailor of Gloucester, published in 1903. Beatrix Potter later acknowledged this story as her personal favourite.
The house is now open to the public. House of the Tailor of Gloucester, 9 College Court, Gloucester, GL1 2NJ. Tel. 01452 422856 |
Melford
Hall, Suffolk
One of East Anglia’s most celebrated Elizabethan
houses, now in the care of The National Trust, it is
little changed externally since 1578 and has an original
panelled banqueting hall. It has been the home
of the Hyde
Parker family since 1786 and Beatrix Potter visited on
several
occasions and painted many fine scenes there. There is
a Regency library, as well as Victorian bedrooms and
good
collections
of furniture and porcelain and a small collection of Beatrix
Potter memorabilia. The garden contains some spectacular
specimen
trees and a charming banqueting house, and there is an
attractive walk through the park.
"In the
Footsteps of Beatrix Potter". is a guided walk roughly
following the sites which Beatrix Potter sketched at Melford
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Melford Hall,
Long Melford, Suffolk CO10 9AA Tel. 01787
880286 www.nationaltrust.org.uk
United States
of America
Gwaenynog,
Denbighshire
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Free
Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department
If you are in the
United States of America, you might like to start by
visiting the Free Library of Philadelphia, where there
is, in the Rare Book Department, a good collection
of original Beatrix Potter drawings and watercolours
and also some letters, first editions, Peter Rabbit
piracies and ephemera and a reference section. There
is not always an extensive display of Beatrix Potter
items on public view, so contact Bill Lang for an appointment.
Free
Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street,
Philadelphia PA 19104 Telephone
215 686 5416, email Langw@library.phila.gov.
Website www.library.phila.gov |
Princeton
University Library, New Jersey
Cotsen Children’s Library
An extensive collection
of books, letters, manuscripts and artwork by Beatrix
Potter, the author of “The Tale
of Peter Rabbit” and other books adored by generations
of children, has been presented to Princeton’s
Cotsen Children’s Library.
The collection of close
to 600 items has been placed on deposit as an intended
gift to the University from
Lloyd
Cotsen,
a member of Princeton’s class of 1950 and a longtime
collector of children’s literature. Cotsen donated
the funds to create the children’s library, which
opened in Firestone in 1997.
In an essay for the
collection’s lavishly illustrated
catalogue, Judy Taylor, an expert on Potter, wrote, “There
are many people in many places who now collect her
work, but Lloyd Cotsen’s Beatrix Potter Collection
ranks as probably the best private assemblage outside
any major
public museum or library.” Included in the
collection are first editions of what are known as
Potter’s “little
books,” letters to friends and family, and
photographs taken by Potter as well as an album of
family photos. |
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Included
is a letter Potter wrote and illustrated that tells the story
of a dog named Nip
who loved sweets. The letter, which Potter sent to her fiancé’s
niece in 1906, is filled with charming sketches of Nip begging
passers-by for a penny, which he takes to the baker’s
shop to buy himself some chocolate.
Princeton University Library, One Washington Road, Princeton,
New Jersey 08544 USA
Tel. 609.258.1470 www.princeton.edu www.libweb.princeton.edu
Cotsen Children’s Library ccl@princeton.edu
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