Beatrix Potter - Inspired in Perthshire
As 'Pottermania' sweeps the UK, Perthshire and in particular the area around Dunkeld has become recognised as the inspiration behind the stories of Peter Rabbit.
Interest in the life of Beatrix Potter has been sparked by the recently released Hollywood film Miss Potter (5 January 2007), starring Renee Zellweger in the title role and Ewan McGregor as her publisher and fiancé - Norman Warne.
A timely new biography, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear, is also due to be published early this year. The story behind the birth of the literary bunny offers a fascinating insight into the creation of a world wide publishing phenomenon.
Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866. As a child she became interested in the natural world and spent much of her time drawing and sketching. It was her family’s long summer breaks in Scotland (May to the end of the salmon season in October) that were to be one of the most enduring influences on Beatrix development both as an artist and scientist. Here she was free to go off and explore the countryside around her.
Charles Macintosh, born in 1839 was a postman for the Dalguise Postal District, the ideal occupation for a budding natural historian, his long daily walks delivering the mail allowing him to study the local flora and fauna.
Gradually Beatrix interest turned to mycology, the study of fungi, and it was this which brought Beatrix Potter and Charles Macintosh together for the first time. It was this meeting which led to a long correspondence which gave great pleasure to both.
It was also whilst in Perthshire in the 1880s that a twenty year old Beatrix outlined the story of Peter Rabbit in a 'picture letter' she wrote to the son of her former governess.
This letter provided the basis for her first book 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' - although the character did not make his published appearance until 1902.
Similarly, a later book 'The Tale of Jeremy Fisher' also started life as a picture letter with characters clearly based on her study and exploration on the banks of the River Tay. 'The tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle' was published in 1905 and is almost certainly based on the Potters' old washer woman at Dalguise, Kitty MacDonald.
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