28ForPotterfans,MartaMcDowell’s
delicate tromp through the
gardens of the legendary author’s
Hill Top Farm in Scotland’s
Lake District is a genuine treat.
The inspiration for her darling
characters and Mr. McGregor’s
garden is evident in her childhood
surrounds. Her grandparents’ 300-
acre estate in Hertfordshire, north
of London, England, employed 15
gardeners. Potter called it “the
place I love best in the world.”
For Potter, an awkward and shy
teen prone to fainting, headaches
and rheumatic fever, her sanctuary
and healing was found in a
paintbrush and pen. “Botanizing”
dominated her day in her 20s as
she bagged insects, dug fossils
and studied animals. Her bible (a
gift from her grandmother) was
Sowerby’s British Wild Flowers.
Her father taught her photography
basics, and she moved from
preparing skeletons of departed
pets to studying mushrooms and
lichens, almost exclusively.
Potter’s artistic wanderings
expanded to publishing holiday
cards. It wasn’t until she found a
new audience in her governess’s
children that she began writing
down stories and sending pen-and-
ink tales to four-year-old Noel. He
was the first to be introduced to
Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter Rabbit.
At the urging of her governess to
publish her stories, Potter took
matters into her own hands after
several rejection letters. She self-
published The Tale of Peter Rabbit
in 1901 and it sold out.
A publisher finally championed
her work and requested colour
illustrations, which introduced her
familiar orange nasturtiums and
red geraniums. She mentioned
horticultural prescriptions like
parsley in her storylines when Peter
felt sick after binging on French
beans and carrots. Potter went
on to publish one or two books a
year, exploring water plants in Mr.
Jeremy Fisher and documenting
her uncle Burton’s home in North
Wales as the setting for The Tale
of the Flopsy Bunnies. It was aABABOUOUTTAAWHWHOLOLEEBUBUNCNCHHOFOFSSTUTUFFFFBeatrix Potter’s Gardening Life:
The Plants and Places That Inspired
the Classic Children’s Tales
by Marta McDowell
(Timber Press, 2013)