Beatrix Potter

Her Inner World

Andrew Norman

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Social
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781473831810
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Biographies littéraires

An insightful biography of the pioneering conservationist, illustrator, prolific author, and creator of Peter Rabbit and other legendary tales. Beatrix Potter was born curious, with an imagination and a love of natural science and animals that would serve her well. When her self-published and self-illustrated first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was picked up by an enterprising publisher, Beatrix's modest "bunny book" would become a phenomenon. After more than a century, Beatrix Potter endures as one of the most cherished children's book authors in literary history. But what were the sources of inspiration that gave birth to her beloved anthropomorphic characters and enduring cautionary tales? Through extensive research, personal letters, and photographs, this concise and intimate biography reveals Beatrix's privileged yet restrictive Victorian childhood; her volatile relationship with her mother; a tragic love affair with her editor; her sometimes debilitating depression and illnesses; her life and career beyond Peter Rabbit; and her liberation as a passionate, driven, trailblazing, and simply original creative spirit.

CHAPTER 1

Beatrix’s Father, Rupert

AS BEATRIX lived in a predominantly man’s world, it is not surprising that men would have a major influence on her life — for better or for worse — and first and foremost of them, in her early years, was her father, Mr Rupert Potter.

Rupert Potter was born in Manchester in 1832, into a family of dedicated Unitarians (Unitarianism being a ‘non-conformist’ or ‘dissenting’ denomination).¹ Having attended local schools, Rupert entered Manchester New College in 1848. (At that time, entrance to both Oxford and Cambridge Universities was denied to dissenters, otherwise Rupert would, undoubtedly, have attended one of the Oxbridge colleges instead.) The function of the college was twofold: to prepare would-be clergymen for the dissenting ministries, and to prepare lay pupils, such as Rupert Potter, for the ‘learned professions as well as for civil and commercial life’.² Rupert graduated from Manchester College (its degrees were awarded by the University of London) in 1851, and in January 1854 he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn (one of London’s four Inns of Court).

In 1857, Rupert was called to the Bar. He subsequently practised as an equity draftsman and conveyancer, a barrister specializing in drafting complicated legal documents for the High Court of Chancery (a division of the High Court of Justice).³

Early correspondence between Beatrix and her father demonstrates the close bond which existed between them. An undated letter, sent by Beatrix from Bolton Gardens to Dalguise (the Potters’ holiday retreat in Perthshire, Scotland), begins ‘Dear Papa,’ and ends with ‘a kiss from your affectionate daughter’. It was to enquire how the dogs were; whether it was ‘fine and nice’, and if Mr Potter could send her a ‘picture’ (photograph) of anything which he found interesting.⁴

In a letter to Beatrix (again undated, but probably written in February 1874), sent to her from Dalguise, Mr Potter confesses to being ‘very sleepy’, having travelled there on the night train from London, and yet he takes the trouble to write to his daughter before retiring to bed. He tells her that he has made enquiries (on her behalf) from McIntosh about ‘Sandy’, a Scottish terrier (who was Beatrix’s first dog), and relates how the Dalguise gamekeeper whistled ‘and out came a brown dog with such long hair and such queer, sharp ears that I did not know him at all’. And Mr Potter’s letter contained a sketch of Sandy, which he describes as ‘full of fun … [if] rather greedy, so we must teach him manners’. There were further details about Beatrix’s ‘pretend garden under the fir trees above the orchard’, the ubiquitous roe deer which were ‘very tame’, and the presence of a ‘little bunny’ which Mr Potter had seen on the lawn. It was signed, ‘I am your affectionate Papa.’⁵

In a further letter to Beatrix, written on 2 March 1874, Mr Potter states that ‘Sandy’ and ‘Gask’ (possibly another pet dog affectionately given the abbreviated name of family friend, the Reverend William Gaskell) ‘are very well’, that the white cat has deterred the rats and mice all through the winter, and that there are snowdrops on the lawn. ‘Now if you read this letter I shall be very glad and I am my dear B. your affectionate papa.’

Mr Potter’s hobby was photography (in 1869 he was elected a member of the Royal Photographic Society of London, with which he exhibited on several occasions). This is fortunate for posterity because he photographed Beatrix in a variety of poses: for example, in a group with her mother, himself, the Reverend William Gaskell, her brother Bertram and others, as they boated on Lake Windermere. One of his most charming images is of his daughter, aged fifteen, cradling her pet springer spaniel, ‘Spot’, in her arms. For a photograph of himself (taken, presumably, by remote control), together with Beatrix and Bertram at Lingholm(e) in the English Lake District, Beatrix made a decorative mount which she illustrated herself with depictions of wild flowers.⁶ When Mr Potter acquired a new camera and handed his old one down to Beatrix, she made good use of it, for purposes which will be discussed shortly.

Mr Potter was a member of two London gentlemen’s clubs: the Reform, which became a centre of liberal and progressive thought, and the Athenaeum, one of its founding members being Beatrix’s favourite novelist, Sir Walter Scott.⁷ Those eligible to apply for membership to the Athenaeum included:

Gentlemen who have either published some literary or professional work or a paper in the Philosophical Transactions [of The Royal Society], or individuals known for their scientific or literary attainments, or Artists of eminence in any of the Fine Arts, and Noblemen and Gentlemen distinguished as liberal patrons of Science, Literature or the Arts.⁸

It was also stipulated that:

bishops and judges, together with Members of both Houses of Parliament might also be admitted, whether they had published anything or not.⁹

As far as is known, Mr Potter, despite having published several important legal pamphlets, fulfilled none of these criteria and was probably admitted under ‘a judicious rule that empowered the committee to bring in [admit] eminent persons by special election’.¹⁰ Among the artists who were members and contemporaries of Mr Potter were Sir John Everett Millais, J. M. W. Turner and Sir Thomas Lawrence. No fewer than five artist members are mentioned by Beatrix in her journal, which she kept between the ages of fifteen and thirty.¹¹ One may therefore imagine the Athenaeum, abuzz with news that one or other of these artists is holding an exhibition at some London gallery, and Mr Potter hastening home to inform Beatrix in order that he and she, both devotees of art, may make plans to attend the function in question.

Painter Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, also a member of the Athenaeum, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, were personal friends of the Potters, with whom they had a great deal in common. Sir Charles was, at one time, President of London’s Royal Academy of Arts (1850), the first President of the Photographic Society (1853), and the first Director of the National Gallery (1855). He was also author of Materials for a History of Oil Painting (published in 1847, a volume with which Beatrix was doubtless familiar). Sir Charles died in 1865, the year before Beatrix was born. As for Elizabeth, she was an art critic and art historian in her own right. In her journal, Beatrix describes how she and her mother visited Elizabeth in February 1886, when the conversation was about politics, but not about art.¹²

In matters of taste Beatrix had respect for her father’s judgement, both in regard to paintings, and also to sculpture. For example, when the pair went to look at the marble statue of Mr Potter’s friend, the Quaker orator and Radical politician, John Bright, by Albert Joy (which had been erected in 1891 in Albert Square, Manchester), Beatrix declared, ‘My father, a competent judge, considers this Statue far away the best [of that particular subject].’¹³

It is also worth mentioning, bearing in mind that both Mr Potter and Beatrix were interested in photography, that one of the most famous pioneers of photography, physicist William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–77), was a member of the Athenaeum.¹⁴

As one who was passionately interested in natural history, Beatrix had undoubtedly heard of English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–82) and his book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (published in 1859). Darwin’s so-called Theory of Evolution was debated, heatedly, on 30 June 1860 at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History, the event being presided over by John Stevens Henslow, Professor of Botany at Cambridge University (where Darwin had once been his pupil).

On the one side of the debate were the Biblical Creationists led by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. On the other were the Evolutionists (or Darwinians) who included biologist Thomas H. Huxley, and botanist Sir Joseph D. Hooker. Also present were Scottish lawyer and geologist Sir Charles Lyell (who found Darwin’s theory difficult to accept), and zoologist and palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen (Darwin’s vehement opponent). As for Henslow, he described Darwin’s Origin of Species as a work which ‘pushes hypothesis too far’.¹⁵

Interestingly, with the exception of Henslow, all these men, including Darwin himself (who had been elected in the year 1838), were members of the Athenaeum and Mr Potter would therefore have come into contact with them on a regular basis (apart from Wilberforce who had died in 1873, the year prior to Mr Potter’s election to the club).

Beatrix seldom mentions Darwin in her writings but in June 1894 she does make an intriguing comment about her cousin, Mary Hutton, who she says ‘seems to be curious to discover whether I should be shocked with so much [presumably talk of] Huxley and Darwin’.¹⁶ In fact, Beatrix would not have been at all shocked, since the community of Unitarians to which she and her family belonged chose to embrace Darwin’s theory rather than to oppose it, and held its creator in high regard as ‘one of their own’.¹⁷

Beatrix was a polymath whose interests ranged far and wide. Had she been born male and come to possess the qualifications required for election to the Athenaeum, how she would have thrived amongst the intelligentsia of the land! But again, the point is an academic one, for more than a century would pass before women were admitted to the club.¹⁸

CHAPTER 2

Beatrix’s Mother, Helen

AT TIMES, as is the case with most children, Beatrix found both her mother and her father irritating, but it was with her mother that she had the greater difficulty. With Mrs Potter there was a clash of temperaments; for both she and her daughter were exceptionally stubborn and determined characters, and their life together, at times, resembled a tug of war. A fundamental difference between the two was that, whereas Mrs Potter was essentially a ‘town person’ who travelled around in a fine carriage and enjoyed socialising, Beatrix, on the other hand, yearned to be in the countryside, and found London, where she never felt well, to be oppressive and an unhealthy place.

On 18 April 1883, for example, Beatrix recorded, ‘Mamma decided on Miss A. [Annie Blanche] Carter … Bertram going to school tomorrow.’ This was a reference to the arbitrary appointment by Mrs Potter of a new governess and tutor in German for her daughter — who at the age of almost seventeen considered herself to have outgrown the need for such a person. (In fact, Beatrix was only three years younger than Annie, who was aged twenty!) This plunged Beatrix into the depths of despair. Said she, dryly, a week later:

A nice way, a lively [way], to begin with a new governess. Only a year but if it is like the last it will be a lifetime. I can’t settle to anything but my painting, I lost my patience over everything else. [And then, resignedly,] There is nothing to be done, I must watch things pass — Oh Faith, Faith.¹

Subsequently however, Beatrix was to say that ‘Miss Carter’ was the governess whom she had liked the best. She was ‘very good-tempered and intelligent’, even though she ‘had her faults …’.² However, Annie remained with the Potters for a period of only just over two years. She left their employ in June 1885, and the following year married civil engineer Henry Harry Moore, and set up home with him at 20 Baskerville Road, Wandsworth. Subsequently, as will be seen, Beatrix would have cause to be extremely grateful to Annie for keeping some precious letters which she had sent to Annie’s children.

Mrs Potter’s stubbornness was one thing, but it was her lack of ...