and SCOTLAND

SIXTEENTH INTERNATIONAL STUDY CONFERENCE

BIRNAM, PERTHSHIRE - 26-30 JUNE 2014

Venue This Conference will be held in the lovely, scenic surroundings of Birnam, Perthshire. Birnam and its twin village, historic Dunkeld, are situated on the banks of the River Tay just some fifty miles north of Edinburgh. Beatrix and her parents spent very many long and happy holidays in this area. Our lectures, workshops and lunches will be in the excellent facilities of the Birnam Institute (www.birnamarts.com) – created in1880 as a community facility for ‘education and entertainment’, much improved and changed over the years. In 2001 a new building was added, providing state of the art facilities for the community, for meetings, arts performances, workshops and exhibitions – including a permanent, but ever changing and developing, Beatrix Potter exhibition. It also has an attractive café, as well as a library. The Potters signed the Visitor Book on one of their visits.

Our evening dinners will be taken in the Brinam Hotel immediately opposite Birnam Arts, across a quiet road.

Accommodation We have reserved rooms in several nearby hotels and guest houses, most offering bedrooms with en-suite bathroom facilities. Three of the hotels/guest houses are just across the road from Birnam Arts – two are a little further away. We are sure that there will be something to suit all tastes. There is a limit to the number of single rooms available, so do consider sharing a twin room. All rooms have a hospitality tray. Once we receive your booking and deposit we will send a document (by email or post) listing the choices with notes on the different features of each one, offering you the chance to indicate your preference. Hotel rooms will generally be available from 3 p.m. on Thursday 26 June, but please check first.

Non-resident attendance Non-residential day attendance (including all Conference events and meals except breakfast) is available if you prefer to make your own accommodation arrangements. We also offer the chance for Members, and local residents, to attend the morning lecture sessions and lunch. (See booking form for more details.)

Travel Birnam has its own railway station (Dunkeld and Birnam) – used by the Potters for their holidays - with direct rail services to and from Edinburgh (Waverley) and Glasgow (Queen Street) for connecting travel by rail or air. More details will be sent later.

You really will not need your own car during the Conference. All our outings will be in comfortable smaller coaches or mini-buses. Knowledgeable Society Members will accompany the groups to give you local- and Beatrix Potter-related information as well as preparing you for any visits.

Provisional Programme Thursday 26 June - The Conference starts with registration and a reception from 6 p.m. at Birnam Arts. After dinner in the Birnam Hotel, with invited guests, there will be time for socialising and a short Conference introduction.

Friday 27 June - Rowena Godfrey will open proceedings with a talk on Visitors to Perthshire, explaining why Scotland become a popular holiday destination for the rich middle classes in the mid- to late-1800s, with particular reference to the Potters in Perthshire and to their guests and other visitors nearby. After coffee, Emma Laws, Frederick Warne curator of Children’s Literature at the Victoria and Albert Museum, will speak on Bertram Potter, Beatrix’s younger brother.

After lunch there will be tours in the local area with Potter highlights, tea at Eastwood or Kinnaird (see also Sunday), and including viewing of Beatrix’s fungi paintings at Perth Museum (if the paintings are not on display at Birnam Arts, as is under consideration).

Saturday 28 June - Our first speaker will be Andrea Immel, curator of the Cotsen Collection, on Beatrix Potter, Reteller of Tales. This talk will suggest that the unfinished and unpublished stories deserve to be better known as examples of Potter’s mature storytelling. After coffee, Libby Joy will deliver Dr Linda Lear’s talk, ‘Up Braan road and back by Rumbling Bridge’. In 1892 Beatrix spent three months exploring and photographing the countryside around Birnam. What she learned and observed made her a better artist and naturalist and awakened her passion for conservation.

In the afternoon we will offer a choice – one of two workshops, discovering fungi and watercolour painting, or an easy walk in the local countryside, led by a guide.

Sunday 29 June - The Potters’ 1894 holiday at Lennel in the Scottish Borders, well documented by Beatrix in her Journal, will be the subject of our first talk, followed, after coffee, by Potter: from Scotland to Japan. George Wallace, who teaches English at the Daito Bunka University in Tokyo, will try to explain the Japanese love affair with Potter's characters, looking back at the myriad ways that Peter et al have appeared in various guises in the oddest situations in Japan.

In the afternoon we will offer tours and teas much as Friday so that everyone has a chance to visit all the important, Potter-related, places in the area.

Evening entertainment - there will be additional special events, from a reading of The Tale o Peter Kinnen by its translator, Lynne McGeachie, and a celebration of Reading Beatrix Potter, to a light-hearted presentation, The Potters in Scotland, and a ceilidh.

Monday 30 June - Participants depart after breakfast. Transport to Dunkeld and Birnam station will be provided.

Conference Fees Full residential, per person in single room - £550, in double/twin room - £500 Non-resident daily rate, per person £97.50 Morning lectures and lunch, per person £30

Please note that some of the accommodation options will attract either a 10% surcharge or 10% discount on the bed and breakfast element of the residential fees. This will be made clear on the accommodation options sheet (sent once you have booked).

BEATRIX POTTER and the

POST-CONFERENCE HOLIDAY TOUR - 30 JUNE–5 JULY 2014

Glenthorne Guest House (www.glenthorne.org) is set in its own attractive gardens in lovely scenery on the edge of the pretty village of Grasmere, , just a few miles north-west of Ambleside. Grasmere has William Wordsworth connections, a selection of local shops, including post office and pharmacy, and plenty of opportunities for easy walks.

Glenthorne will be our base for this five-night, four-day holiday tour. The Guest House has just undergone considerable alteration resulting in two new ground floor guest bedrooms, a new purpose-built Meeting Room, and new and improved guest reception area. All our bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms and tea/coffee making facilities; some will be in the fresh, bright converted stables – used by Wordsworth while he was living at nearby Allan Bank.

Over the four days we will visit many areas of Cumbria with links to Beatrix Potter in comfortable minibuses or smaller coaches, sometimes with specialist local guides. There will be time to explore villages and to shop or relax. Lunch is only included on two days, offering participants the opportunity to ‘do their own thing’ on the others. But breakfast and dinner will be provided at Glenthorne each day.

Monday 30 June - we will set off early by coach from Birnam, stopping en route at Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott’s house near Melrose in the wonderful scenery of the Scottish Borders, and possibly visiting Hawick to view a photograph album owned by Bertram Potter. We will arrive in Grasmere in good time to explore the village before a reception and dinner.

Tuesday 1 July - our first day’s tour will include shorter drives and several stops, including: Holehird Gardens, beside Holehird House, the Potters’ holiday home in 1889 and 1895; the Troutbeck Valley, where Beatrix’s largest single farm was situated; Blackwell, a stunning Arts and Crafts house overlooking Windermere; Broad Leys in Bowness-on-Windermere, which the Potters rented in 1909 and 1912; and The Armitt Museum, in Ambleside, with its excellent new Beatrix Potter exhibition, ‘Image & Reality’.

Wednesday 2 July - we will set off in two minibuses, with Beverley Maggs as our special guide, for and the with their settings for The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle; we will also visit Lingholm, where the Potters spent nine summer holidays between 1885 and 1907. Lunch will be at the 300-year-old Swinside Inn.

Thursday 3 July - we will venture to the far east of the county with a local guide to explore the Heelis homeland and the historic village of Appleby, and spend time in Sedbergh – the renowned ‘book town’.

Friday 4 July - our final day will be very special. We will travel in two minibuses to visit those properties so close to Beatrix Potter – the Beatrix Potter Gallery, Wray Castle, Castle Cottage and Hill Top. Beverley Maggs will be with us again and she will lead short walking tours in Sawrey and in pointing out the buildings and scenes that Beatrix included in her little books. Mandy Marshall will welcome us to Castle Cottage for lunch and tours of the house and garden, and we will have a private visit at Hill Top – as well as a guided tour of Wray Castle.

Saturday 5 July - there will be transport to Windermere station.

Tour Fees - per person in single room - £660, in double/twin room - £610

The number of participants will be limited to thirty for everyone’s better enjoyment of the Holiday Tour. Places will be offered first to Beatrix Potter Society Members, and to those also booking to attend the Conference.

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Please note that as these programmes go to print many months in advance of the events themselves, it may prove necessary to make minor adjustments, but we will try to keep these to a minimum.

Any questions? Contact: Jenny Akester [email protected] (01582 769755)

UK Registered Charity no. 281198 JA, December 2013