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[email protected]. ©Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society and other rightsholders Marginalia 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.