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Beatrix Potter, Conservationist

Keith Stewart Thomson

elen Beatrix Potter (1866– Potter visited. In the countryside she H1943) secured a place among The author of thrived; strangely, her mother allowed the immortals of English literature with her freedoms there that were denied her books for children, starting with in London. Young Beatrix was able to The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902). Less well Peter Rabbit was roam on her pony, and all of nature known is the fact that she was also a was open for her to explore. major conservationist who devoted the a complex woman latter part of her life, and all of her for- Artist and Scientist tune, to preserving the landscapes and whose quest for Encouraged by her father (who was farming practices of the Lake District in especially interested in photography), northwest England. By the time of her autonomy helped various tutors and governesses, and death, she had written and illustrated the painter Sir John Everett Millais (a 33 books and amassed over 4,000 acres save a crucial part family friend), Beatrix Potter quickly of crucial hill-farm property. She be- developed a talent as a watercolorist. queathed the land to the nation via the of the English She remained lonely, shy and lacking in National Trust for Places of Historic In- self-confidence, however, and her per- terest or Natural Beauty, an institution countryside sonal development was slowed further her father helped found. by a two-year bout with rheumatic fever In northwest England and southern that started when she was 19. Even in Scotland, the Old Norse term “fell” is ism and development to the region. At her twenties, she was quite childlike, of- used both in the names of peaks (for the same time, the indigenous economy, ten sunk into fantasies, but she steadily example, Scafell Pike is England’s high- which was based on herding sheep on developed as an illustrator and even- est mountain), and as a synonym for the fells, was declining rapidly. Without tually sold some of her drawings to be the high, boggy moorland country. her efforts, much would have been lost. published as cards. During visits to the The Lake District, with its bleak open As a young woman, Beatrix Potter Natural History Museum and the Vic- fells, protected valleys and multitude would have seemed an unlikely savior toria and Albert Museum in London, of lakes and tarns (steep-walled moun- of any rural economy. She grew up she exercised her skills in dry-brush tain pools), includes some of the most in smoky London, in a dysfunctional watercolor on a wide range of subjects, glorious and popular scenery in Brit- family of considerable affluence. Her from costumes (a waistcoat famously ain. Names like Windemere, Esthwaite father was loving but distant, a barris- reappeared in The Tailor of Gloucester) Water, Conniston, Rydal Water and ter with artistic aspirations. Her moth- to archaeological remains, plants and Grasmere have been deeply embed- er was snobbish and repressive; she animals. In London also, she and her ded in the English consciousness since tried to raise her daughter—in what younger brother kept a considerable me- Wordsworth, Coleridge, de Quincy and seems almost a caricature of Victorian nagerie that included bats, frogs, newts, Ruskin made the Lake District a focus sexist submission—to be nothing more snakes, tamed mice and rabbits. of the Romantic Movement in 19th- than a highly educated helpmeet who All these experiences led her to be- century literature. Its remote, harsh would manage the household and nev- come an astute student of algae and beauty readily conjures up thoughts of er have a life of her own. Beatrix Potter fungi. From painting fungi, she had the sublime, but when Beatrix Potter was saved from total subjugation by become interested in their biology, en- first visited, late-Victorian–era prosper- her intelligence, her love of natural his- couraged in the summers by a Scottish ity threatened to bring ever more tour- tory, an active fantasy life and a deep naturalist named Charlie McIntosh love of the country. (the model, later, for Peter Rabbit’s Rupert and Helen Potter sowed the nemesis, Mr. McGregor). Beatrix Pot- Keith Stewart Thomson is professor emeritus of seeds of their daughter’s liberation ter developed a skill for culturing fun- natural history at the University of Oxford and through the simple fact of spending gal spores and became convinced that senior research fellow of the American Philosoph- ical Society. His latest book is Before Darwin: every summer in the country, where macroscopic fungi like mushrooms and Reconciling God and Nature, published by Yale they stayed at a series of rented houses, toadstools must grow from subsurface University Press. Address: Oxford University first in Perthshire, Scotland, and later mycelia as do other molds. Further, she Museum, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PWQ, U.K. in the Lake District. Various relatives became attracted to the concept that Internet: [email protected] also had country estates that Beatrix lichens are a symbiotic combination

The idyllic beauty of the Lake District landscape, as seen in this view towards the village of Little Langdale, might have been dotted with buildings and crossed with asphalt if not for the pastoral sensibilities and sharp business acumen of Jemima Puddle-Duck’s creator. of an alga and a fungus. These were literature and conservation. Five years didn’t live on the property; still she was ideas that had been mooted elsewhere, after the Kew Gardens episode, Bea- not free from her parents. For nearly a particularly in Germany, but when she trix Potter, now 36 years old, began decade, the best access she could man- took her studies to the Royal Botanic writing books at the rapid clip of two age was to persuade her father and Gardens at Kew, she ran into a brick a year, beginning with Peter Rabbit. mother to rent nearby houses during wall of what appears, at first glance, to In 1905, she became engaged to her the summers so that she could make the be rampant male chauvinism. editor/publisher, Norman Warne, al- daily hike to her beloved farm. None- A closer look at this episode, how- though her mother bitterly opposed theless, she bought up adjacent proper- ever, shows that her approach to the the match. Tragically, Warne died of ties, putting together a series of parcels director of Kew and a key staff member leukemia within a month. Beatrix Pot- that protected the watersheds, ancient was a mixture of awkwardness, timidity ter then seems finally to have started woodlands and the open fells where and arrogant disdain. How many senior to mature as a person. She had hit the sheep grazed. It was not until her scientists would have embraced the ar- upon a winning formula for her books: father died in 1914 that she moved her rival of a young unknown, armed with a simple story, a whiff of danger, much mother to the Lake District and was fi- letters from influential family members naughtiness and a cast of carefully an- nally free to make her home at Castle but no scholarly credentials, telling thropomorphized animal characters— Farm, near Hill Top. There is a certain them that their ideas were all wrong? never overly cute—whom she drew justice here: She had been brought up As she described later, “I informed him brilliantly in authentic settings. to manage a household, and finally she [the director] that it would be in all the did. And, the year before, aged 47, she books, whether or no, and departed The High Country had married. Her husband, William giggling.” She was then 31. Sadly, the The success of her books gave her con- Heelis, was a Lake Country lawyer who venture quickly fizzled out. Although fidence; the income from their sale gave helped with her purchases and shared the staff member at Kew whom Beatrix her some independence. That same her deep love of the land. For 30 years, Potter had originally scorned submitted year that Warne died, she made her they lived happily in the hill country, a paper on her behalf to the Linnean first purchase of land: Hill Top Farm, and the children’s books progressively Society of London, she later gave up the in the village of Near Sawrey overlook- assumed less importance in her life. effort and withdrew it. ing Esthwaite Water. It was a place she Country living was not at all easy. The Science’s loss, however, was very had seen many times during the sum- winters were snowy with deep cold; the much to the advantage of children’s mers. Despite her landowner status, she summers often brought drought or a

© 2007 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Reproduction www.americanscientist.org 2007 May–June 211 with permission only. Contact [email protected]. flood. All the difficulties that beset hill Zellweger in the recent movie Miss Pot- stepped in to sort things out and, impor- farming, which made so many farm- ter) became transformed: first into the tantly, to preserve her income. ers willing to sell out to “Mrs. Heelis,” writer and artist familiar to all, and then Beatrix Potter was a very basic sort of were visited on her. One problem con- into a doughty 50-year-old who tramped conservationist. Even though the Lake cerned the sheep. The authentic Lakes the hills and won prizes for her livestock District includes many regions of ancient breed was, and is, the Herdwick Sheep, at agricultural fairs. It is as if she had woodland transformed by sheep graz- a cold-hardy animal adapted to graze become a character in one of her own ing, she was not concerned with restor- the harsh uplands. Typically, each farm- books. She took an important role in lo- ing the landscape to its primeval state. er has a small piece of his own lowland cal affairs, fiercely resisting the attempts She wanted to preserve a particular qual- pasture for overwintering. The rest of of industrialists to develop the region. ity of the environment and its associated the year, his flock grazes on a portion (a She also campaigned successfully to way of life as she had first encountered “heaf”) of the communal, open-range bring in a representative of the Queen’s them—a unique, rather inefficient ru- fells, which are inaccessible except on District Nurses Association, a charitable ral economy rather than a set of natural foot. Each year, new Herdwick lambs organization that brought medical care habitats. At her death, the total estate learn from their mothers the territories to rural areas. But her compassion had of farms was valued at 211,000 pounds to which they will return the following limits. Having grown up with every (between $14 million and $35 million year. “Heafed” lambs then stay on their privilege that money could buy, she re- today). Beatrix Potter’s land is now a territories without supervision—a use- fused to improve her properties with gas central part of the National Trust’s con- ful trait unique to the breed. However, lighting or even indoor bathrooms. And, tribution to the Lake District National Herdwicks produce a coarse wool use- somewhat surprisingly, she always op- Park, which, at 885 square miles, is Eng- ful only for carpets. Crossing them with posed the notion of women’s suffrage. land’s largest and most popular scenic other breeds would have produced She had become an astute business- reserve. Ironically, her fame now swells finer wool, but the less-hardy offspring woman, and the incompetence of her the tourism that threatens to overwhelm would neither fend for themselves nor publisher Frederick Warne (run by the the land she worked to save. graze the fells evenly. Bracken fern brothers of her dead fiancé) was a con- would take over the grassland, for ex- stant trial. She found it difficult to get Bibliography ample. Preserving the tradition of hill earnings statements or royalty payments Davies, H. 1988. Beatrix Potter’s Lakeland. Lon- farming, based on the Herdwick sheep, promptly. Her ideas for dolls and ceram- don: Frederick Warne. required constant attention to breeding ics based on her characters—marketing Lear, L. 2007. Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature. and land management. But without this notions that were ahead of her time— London: Allen Lane Penguin Press. effort, a way of life and an entire land- were never properly followed up. Then, Pearsall, W. P. 1950. Mountains and Moorlands. London: Collins. scape would have been lost. in 1917, Harold Warne, the managing Whalley, J. I., ed. 1987. Beatrix Potter, 1866–1943: Through all this, the timid girl from partner, was arrested for fraud. With sur- The Artist and Her World. London: Frederick London (simply portrayed by Renee vival of the company in jeopardy, Potter Warne.