The Beatrix Potter Society · Tale of Squirrel Nutkin bound in material that came from the Printworks. Question From a Reader: In our last issue, Dudley Chignall asked if anyone could

Herdwick lamb, Hawkshead Photo: Jenny and Bob Akester

Dear Beatrix Potter Lover,

This issue abounds with animal life - fitting both for the subject of

Beatrix Potter, and for the season of rebirth most of us are now enjoying. Looking at the little fellow above, it's easy to imagine

The Beatrix Potter Society

Beatrix's delight and pride in her flock. Thank you to Jenny Akester for sending the photo - for good measure, another of the family:

Herdwicks near Hawkshead. Photo: Jenny and Bob Akester.

Recently: In "Coming Up" in the last "Pottering About", we listed the

"Inspiration by Design" exhibit in Melbourne, Australia (it runs until mid-June). There have been several articles on the exhibition, all featuring the same image of a page from the first, privately published, edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit (see below). We have links for two: an article by Australia's national public broadcaster, ABC, sent by Sue Reynolds, and this one, from the Sydney Morning Herald. (The July Journal and Newsletter will also have a review of the exhibit by Sue Reynolds, the BPS Liaison Officer for Australia.)

Want to learn more about Beatrix Potter? Consider joining the Society. You not only meet people who are passionate about Beatrix Potter, her life and works, you receive the quarterly Journal and Newsletter, full of interesting articles about Miss Potter and the Society's efforts and events. Go here to learn more about the Society and to find the Membership form for download. Save the Date: Beatrix Potter Society Autumn Meeting September 12, 2015 Sloane Club, London Winter Gathering December 5, 2015

Sloane Club, London

Quick Links

Email us at: [email protected]

Read the previous issue of "Pottering About" here.

Website

Visit the Society's web page: The Beatrix Potter Society

Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1901 © Frederick Warne & Co., 1902, 1971, and courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Coming Up:

Related to the above, the Australian Members (and any others who happen to be in the area!) are invited to visit the Exhibition on Monday, May 11, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. A special Floor Talk by Dr. Anna Welch will be given, with particular notice being made of the two Beatrix Potter items. *Note: After Melbourne, the exhibit will travel to Sydney (State Library of New South Wales), where it will run from July 8 to September 27, 2015.

----------------------------------------- May 9, 2015, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., Barrington Hall, Roswell, GA "Tea with Beatrix Potter", a spring tradition at Barrington Hall, including storytelling, games and tea. (Thank you to Carol Saldeen and David Pepper for this one.) ------------------------------------------ May 14, 2015, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL Marta McDowell will be giving her talk: "Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life".

Stay Connected

Pottering About Editors: Janet Sullivan

Carolyn Schaeffer

------------------------------------------ May 15 - 16, 2015, The BPS Spring Meeting in the Lakes Non-Members are welcome for the talks and tea (£7.50 admission charge). Details can be found in the flyer. * For those registered for the Saturday night dinner at the Sawrey House Hotel , please make your selection of three dishes, by number, from the Hotel menu and email your choice to Phillip Price at [email protected]. In addition, Phillip says: "We are very lucky to be able to visit Hill Top Farm on the Sunday morning - final timing and arrangements for this visit will be announced during the Saturday afternoon meeting. No communal transport will now be needed so a refund of £10 will be made, during the weekend, to all those who paid the original budgeted amount of £12.50".

----------------------------------------- May 21, 2015, 7:00 p.m., Mariposa Museum, Peterborough, NH Betsy Bray will give her talk: "Beatrix Potter, A Woman Ahead of her Time". ----------------------------------------- Throughout the summer, various locations in the UK, Quantum Theatre performs "The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny" in a variety of locations - including Melford Hall. Click on the "Tour Schedule" for the play on the Quantum Theatre website for the dates and locations. ------------------------------------------ For those planning on attending the "Peter Rabbit Country Tea" at the Oak Glen Schoolhouse, CA, June 27 (mentioned in the previous Pottering About), RSVP to Dale Schafer, [email protected], by June 1.

In the News:

A new book, The Shepherd's Life: A

Tale of the Lake District is generating

much excitement, judging from the number of enthusiastic articles about it, and the number of you who took the time to send links - thank you all! The author, James Rebanks, has two flocks to tend to - his huge following on Twitter (he is the "herdyshepherd1"), and the Herdwicks on his Lakeland farm, worked by his father and grandfather before him. In case you don't get to the end of Brian Viner's review in The Daily Mail (UK), there is a nod to Beatrix: "...his [James Rebanks] effusive praise for a famous children's author, whom he thinks of not as the creator of Peter Rabbit, nor even as Beatrix Potter, but as Mrs Heelis, doughty champion of Herdwick sheep".

We offer the above-mentioned Daily Mail article, one from The

Guardian (UK) and, finally, the BBC. The Journal and Newsletter will have a review of the book in July. It should be noted that the US and UK editions will differ slightly - the J&N review will feature the UK edition. The US edition is being published by Flatiron, a subsidiary of Macmillan, and will be out sometime in May, while the UK edition is Allen Lane/Penguin and has been out for a while. The cover image, sub-title, and inside typeface are different, and there are small changes to the text. Some copyright material (photos and text) has been omitted. (The cover image above must be the US version, as the subtitle is Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape.) Finally, a lovely video on James Rebanks, from Penguin.

Great Britain has, for many years, had a problem with the non-

native grey squirrel "taking over", and the native red squirrel in decline. Timmy Tiptoes versus Squirrel Nutkin. A hopeful article in the Telegraph reports that the red squirrel may be gaining a toehold in Windermere. The problem is not that the larger greys have been running out the smaller reds, it is that they carry a virus fatal to the red squirrel, and their size makes them more adaptable during harsh winters. The article, "Squirrel Nutkin fights back in battle against grey rivals" can be found here.

Photo: Christopher Pledger/The Telegraph

For another heartwarming wildlife story, Phillip Price provides this

about the Hazel Dormouse: "In her report in the April 15, 2015 edition of Country Life, Julie Harling reported that the hazel dormouse, which is about to wake from its winter slumbers this month, is being reintroduced into woodland areas in an attempt to halt the slide into extinction. Julie Harling included in her report a 'Did you know?' column from which I have selected four items: *The hazel dormouse is an ancient native species, it has been present in Britain since at least the last Ice Age more than 10,000 years ago. * They were so prolific in Victorian times that school children would trade them in the playground. * It takes a dormouse 20 minutes to open a hazel nut. * Beatrix Potter kept a hazel dormouse [Xarifa - Arabic/Moorish for a learned educated person] as a pet. Beatrix Potter recorded in her Journal in December of 1886 that 'On Oct. 18th. occurred the death of Poor Miss Mouse, otherwise Xarifa. I was very much distressed, because she had been so sensible about taking medicine that I thought she would get through, but the asthma got over her one night, and she laid herself out in my hand and died. Poor little thing, I thought at one time she would last as long as myself. I believe she was a great age. Her nose and

eyebrows were white, and towards the end of her life she was quite blind, but affectionate and apparently happy. ... I think she was in many respects the sweetest little animal I ever knew.'"

Dormice, Archibald Thorburn 1903

Beatrix has been featured on the "Mighty Girl" page on Facebook. Thanks to Anadel Law for sending this one! On the Facebook page, a short biography accompanies this image:

For the Bakers:

Marta McDowell alerted us to a video of Miranda Gore Browne,

baking "Milk and Blackberry Bunny Cakes". Members may remember her recipe for "Thomas' Carroty Cake" in the January issue of the Journal and Newsletter (No. 135). These cakes may be just the thing for some of those springtime teas. The recipe can be found here, and the video is charming:

Miranda Gore Browne bakes Milk and Blackberry Bunnies

For the Gardeners:

Judith Hedgpeth sends this photo of a plant from Mexico. The label may be too small to decipher, but it identifies the bristles as "Hedgehog" (Agave Stricta).

For the Collectors:

This post

card, owned by David Pepper, was sent from Oslo, Norway to Manchester, UK in 1931. The hotel pictured on the front, the Grand, is still operating. What is of interest for us is the address it is mailed to: "Edmund Potter and Co. The Calico Printers". Those receiving the Journal and Newsletter will no doubt remember that the January issue (No. 135) featured calico designs on the front cover and mentions the Printworks in several articles. For those unfamiliar with Edmund Potter, he was Beatrix's grandfather. Beatrix had the deluxe editions of The Tailor of Gloucester and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin bound in material that came from the Printworks.

Question From a Reader: In our last issue, Dudley Chignall asked if anyone could help with

the name of the print from which Beatrix took inspiration for the

Tailor's shop in The Tailor of Gloucester, which Beatrix said was copied from a print of houses in old London. Thank you to George Haynes (at one time the Manager of the Tailor of Gloucester Shop), who has responded: "My understanding is that there is no print for the front of the Tailor's shop. It is an actual shop in College Court, No. 9. It is nestled in against St. Michael's Gate which leads to the Cathedral. Potter sat in front of it on a warm day in either May or June and sketched it. This was not the shop of the real tailor of Gloucester; that was the Union public house on Westgate Street. As you probably know, Potter did not like that shop, found the one in College Court and drew that instead. The inside of the shop is a fiction in that she drew from several inspirations, including shops in London. These, I believe, went during the Blitz." If anyone has anything more to add on the curious mention of the print, we'd be interested to hear.

Tidbits:

Marta McDowell sends her current favourite reference to Beatrix Potter, found in an interview with U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (Mark Leibovich, New York Times). "Your last name is Cotton, and this interview was arranged by your communications director, Caroline Rabbitt. Who is your chief of staff, Beatrix Potter? If only. No, my chief of staff is Doug Coutts." ------------------------------------------------------- Carol Saldeen found this YouTube clip of the Tailor of Gloucester Clock in Eastgate Market, Gloucester, UK. The video is less than six minutes, and the "action" begins about a minute and a half in.

Tailor of Gloucester Clock

In Closing:

Thank you for joining us again, and thank you to all who have

been in touch over the last six weeks. Your contributions are making all the difference. We look forward to more news of upcoming events, reports on events just past, stories, photos and items of interest on all things Potter-related (in 100 to 150 words). Please send submissions for the next issue by June 5. Copyright 2015, The Beatrix Potter Society All rights reserved, UK Registered Charity No. 281198

Forward this email

This email was sent to [email protected] by [email protected] | Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

The Beatrix Potter Society | C/O PO Box 202 | South Harwich | MA | 02661