Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter

The story of Beatrix Potter


Helen Beatrix Potter was born on Saturday, July 28, 1866 at 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington, Middlesex in the country of England.   She was the first child born to Rupert and Helen Potter; a well-to-do London couple who were heirs to a cotton fortune.   Her father Rupert Potter was a prosperous lawyer.   He was also an enthusiastic and skilled photographer who enjoyed not only taking photographs of his family and friends but also the ever changing scenes on the streets of London.   Miss Potter’s mother, Helen Potter, was a simple country gentlewoman who became a social London lady after she married Rupert Potter.   Prior to marriage she had enjoyed painting with water colors and frolicking in the countryside.   As a married woman she engaged in carriage rides and afternoon tea with other socialite ladies of London and then back home to prepare herself for frequent elaborate dinner parties.
When Rupert and Helen Potter married in 1863 they lived in Upper Harley Street, a fashionable part of London at the time.   When Helen became pregnant they moved to 2 Bolton Gardens in Kensington where they remained until Rupert’s death nearly fifty years later.   The third floor nursery in Bolton Gardens was Beatrix Potter’s playroom, schoolroom, and eventually studio for the forty seven years following her birth.
In the time which Beatrix Potter was born it was customary for children to be cared for by either a nurse or governess.   Beatrix spent much of her childhood in solitude, only seeing her parents at bedtime and on special occasions.   The Potter’s hired a young woman, Nurse McKenzie, from the Highlands of Scotland, where the Potters went for their holiday every summer.   Nurse McKenzie looked after and cared for Beatrix with strict and spartan attention.   She fed her, dressed her, helped her to crawl and walk, taught her her first words and introduced her to fairies.  
When Beatrix was almost six years old, her brother Walter...