Photo: Glyn Gregory

Newsletter 32 is in its final stages as the 149th The Beatrix Potter anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth rolls past. Happy Society Birthday, Miss Potter/Mrs Heelis! In response to our request for photos from the Spring Interested in learning Meeting, Glyn Gregory (Chorley, UK) has sent a more about Beatrix selection. One is featured above - Hill Top from the Potter? farm drive - and there are more a little farther down. All Consider joining the are from vantage points that visitors to Hill Top Society. You not only generally don't have access to. It must have been a meet people who are lovely outing and thank you to Glyn for the peek! passionate about Beatrix

Potter, her life and works, Society News: you receive the quarterly Journal and Newsletter, A final reminder about the Autumn Meeting in full of interesting articles London, Saturday, September 12, morning rather than about Miss Potter and the afternoon this time. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Nicolette Society's efforts and Jones (author, broadcaster, and children's books editor events. for The Sunday Times) will give a talk: "Peter Rabbit vs Little Grey Rabbit: the rivalry and affinity between Go here to learn more Beatrix Potter and Alison Uttley". Guests and non- about the Society and to Members are welcome - £5 guest fee payable at the find the Membership door. form for download.

A correction to the flyer in the July Journal and Newsletter - the note that orders of Society publications would not be filled until late July should have read "late August". Summer holidays are Save the Date: intervening, so please bear with us. 2015: The Savannah Children's Book Festival will be held in Forsyth Park (Savannah, GA) on Saturday, Winter Gathering November 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Society will December 5, 2015 have a table at the event and is looking for volunteers Sloane Club, London to read Beatrix Potter stories, help with crafts (supplied by the Festival), answer questions and hand out leaflets 2016: about the Beatrix Potter Society. Last year over 40,000 attended this event, featuring children's book authors and illustrators from around the U.S. with readings, March 5, 2016 - AGM and costumed characters and craft tents to Linder Lecture entertain. Late June/early July The 2015 authors include Kate DiCamillo; Andrea 2016 - 17th Study Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney; Nick Bruel, of Bad Conference, Lake District Kitty fame; Brian Lies; Jim Aylesworth and more. The 2015 information will be posted shortly; at the time of September 10, 2016 - sending "Pottering About", it is the 2014 event on the Autumn Meeting Live Oak Public Libraries web page. December 3, 2016 - If you are interested in helping, please contact Winter Gathering Reading Beatrix Potter coordinator: Ann Troxell,

[email protected].

Quick Links Email us at: potteringabout1@gmail. com

Read the previous issue of "Pottering About" here.

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

Society Forsyth Park, Savannah Photo: B. Bray

Recently:

Stay Connected Society Members were saddened to hear that Willow

Taylor died in June though, at the grand age of 92, we celebrate her long life. Willow grew up at the Tower Bank Arms (her parents were the innkeepers) and knew Beatrix Potter - surely one of the last living who could make such a claim. (The photo below shows how close the Inn and Hill Top are to each other.) Willow was Pottering About Editors: curator at Hill Top from 1971 to 1985, and then stayed on as a volunteer. In 2000 the BPS published Willow's Janet Sullivan book, Through the Pages of My Life: and my Encounters Carolyn Schaeffer with Beatrix Potter, her memoir of growing up in Sawrey. There will be an obituary and memories of Willow in the October Journal and Newsletter.

The Spring Meeting in the Lakes included a tour of Hill Top Farm and we are pleased to have some photos from that outing. Thank you again to Glyn - he has taken the trouble of identifying the buildings.

Hill Top at the left, Tower Bank Arms is at the right in the foreground.

Esthwaite Water is the sliver of lake visible at the left, Hill Top Farm in the centre, and Castle Cottage is the last building on the right (apologies if the image is not large enough to make out the labels).

BPS Members in the farmyard, Hill Top Farm.

The Peter Rabbit Country Tea, held June 27 in California to mark the occasion of the Society's 35th anniversary, was a tremendous success. BPS Member Janine McCluskey (Simi Valley, CA) has a glimpse for those of us who couldn't be there (a more in-depth version of her report will be in the next J&N):

Forty-five enthusiastic BPS Members and guests met at the Historic Oak Glen School House for a day of activities including a tour of the "Rivers House", and visits to the Oak Glen Preserve and the Botanical Gardens. At the afternoon tea, a challenging Beatrix Potter quiz of famous story lines and rhymes was part of the fun. Theresa Law shared many special moments she has experienced as a BPS Member since 1981. U.S. Liaison Officers Lynne Farrell and Suzanne Terry were in attendance, and Dale Schafer read letters of congratulation from Beatrix Potter Society dignitaries. The afternoon concluded with a raffle and Potter- related prizes. Special thanks to Warne-Penguin for donating copies of the 80th Anniversary Edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, pins and photo cards for the gift bags each guest received.

At the Peter Rabbit Country Tea Photo: Ingrid Floren

Jackie Taylor (the Society's RBP/IBP Organiser in the UK) sends this to brighten our day: Readers and presenters in the UK and Europe have been busy with summer readings and these will be reported in the October J&N. In the meantime, I have an amusing story from June, when I had planned to read The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle to the reception [kindergarten] class from our local school under the big gazebo in our garden - but the heavens opened and we decamped to our sitting room for the story! Our granddaughter Emily was in this group and enjoyed the event. That evening, our son-in-law noticed that there was a little movement in a hole he had dug that afternoon in which he was intending to concrete the base of a swing. On exploring, he found a large hedgehog had fallen into the hole. He rescued her and Emily was enthralled to see a "real" hedgehog.

Emily introducing Zebbie, her favourite toy, to Mrs Tiggy. Afterwards Mrs Tiggy happily ambled towards the hedge and disappeared, apparently none the worse for her experience. I hope that everyone has successful summer readings and presentations and that the weather behaves for all the planned activities. Good luck and best wishes. Jackie Taylor

A small group recently had an opportunity to tour Lingholm (one of the estates rented by the Potters as a summer holiday home) with its current owners, Jane and David Seymour.

Pictured from left to right: Barb Gibson, Kathy Cole, Jane Seymour, David Seymour, Betsy Bray and Sally Bickerdyke.

Jane and David keep a set of the little books in each of the apartments and cottages on the estate. Photos: Betsy Bray

At the Galleries:

Several of you sent links and information about a special exhibit at the Armitt Museum, "Weaving into Potter's Art: Basketmaking and Seatweaving in Cumbria through the 'Little Books'". A unique idea to recreate woven items depicted in the Tales. Sadly, the exhibit was not on for much more than a week and has come and gone already. Jenny Akester managed to get to the Armitt in time and writes, "This was a charming, small display of work by Cumbria Basketmakers and Seatweavers Group, most attractively displayed with copies of the appropriate little books open beside them, and artistically designed labels attached. The Little Pig Robinson donkey creels were dramatically displayed on the beautiful antique rocking horse and Owen Jones' wonderful oak swill only lacked a curled up cat. But I really wanted to take home Hunca Munca's baby cradle - if only I had a newborn grandchild!"

Photo: Bob Akester

Following Up:

The nomination period for the "face" for the next £20.00 note has ended and another flurry of articles have appeared, all suggesting that Beatrix remains in the group of frontrunners. We have one from The London Evening Standard, claiming her as the favourite and another in The Week, but readers may enjoy most of all an opinion piece by Claire Cohen, "New £20 note: Why Beatrix Potter should be Britain's next woman of note" in The Telegraph (UK).

Tidbits:

Which Beatrix Potter character are you? To mark the 149th anniversary of Beatrix's birth, The Guardian (UK) has a quick quiz to tell you.

Also in celebration of the birthday, the British Museum posted four Flopsy Bunny images on their Facebook page. Simply wonderful.

David Pepper visited Agatha Christie's home, "Greenway", in Devon. He spotted a copy of The Tale of Benjamin Bunny on her bookshelf and wonders if anyone else has noticed it. If you watch carefully, just past a minute and a half in on this Youtube video of Greenway, the camera passes across the book's spine.

Another Blue Plaque: Mark Lewis, Collections Manager at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, posted a photo of the plaque and an article about Beatrix Potter's Tenby holiday and the resulting letters to four of Annie Moore's children. An entertaining, short read and a plug for old-fashioned letter writing.

From Our Mailbox:

An informative note from Dudley Chignall: Beatrix wrote, "The spirit of enquiry leads up a lane which hath no ending." This is certainly true. I collect the work of an author/illustrator of children's books, Ernest Aris. Prompted by the mention of the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton University in a previous "Pottering About", I searched the Cotsen records to find a copy of Aris's earliest book, Ten Little Red Men c.1907, which has eluded me for some twenty years. In 1916, when her eyesight was deteriorating, Beatrix had commissioned Aris to provide some illustrations for her tale of The Oakmen. She provided some outline sketches and advised that "Russett brown and blue grey check (rather than greens) would show well on the elves clothing." Aris, in his inimitable way, chose red. The Oakmen was never published, although Beatrix did produce a version as a present for her niece in which she retained the red clothing for the Oakmen. In 1917, Beatrix wrote to Fruing Warne advising that Aris was an "objectionable (but amusing) little bounder." I am sure that Beatrix would find it amusing to learn Aris had managed to make a good living from the little red men that first sprung from his pen in 1907. Meanwhile, I continue to wander the lane.

Dudley includes this link to some illustrations of the Oakmen at the V&A.

In Closing: Thank you for joining us again, and thank you for all the contributions. We look forward to your 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). The next issue of "Pottering About" will come your way mid-September. Please send submissions by September 7.

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