Beatrix Potter - Peter Rabbit

Picture: Belgian Tapestry Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit is the main character in a series of children's books by Beatrix Potter. He first appeared in The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Although he and the other rabbits are drawn from life, they wear human clothes; Peter wears a bright blue coat and clogs.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit:
Peter and his family are introduced. One day, Mrs. Rabbit goes to the market, leaving Peter and his sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail to play in the forest. Disobeying his mother's orders, Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden and eats as many vegetables as he can before Mr. McGregor spots him and chases him around. Eventually, Peter manages to escape, but not before losing his jacket and his shoes, which Mr. McGregor uses for his new scarecrow.

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny:
Peter's cousin, Benjamin Bunny, finds out that Mr. and Mrs. McGregor have left their home unattended, and drags Peter to the garden, where Peter's clothes still are (and as a result of rain the previous night, have shrunk). After getting Peter's clothes back, Peter and Benjamin steal some onions to give to Peter's mother, but are then captured by Mr. McGregor's cat. Fortunately, Benjamin's father, Mr. Benjamin Bunny, having noticed their disappearance, shows up and rescues them, but later reprimands Peter and Benjamin for going into Mr. McGregor's garden by whipping them with a switch that he was carrying with him.

The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle:
Peter, along with Benjamin, makes a cameo in this story where Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle mends, among other clothing articles, Peter's jacket.

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles:
In this story of the titular swindlers, Peter and his family, along with characters from several of Potter's other previous stories, make cameo appearances in the artwork.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies:
According to this story, Peter, now an adult, usually lends cabbages to Benjamin, Flopsy, and their children. Sometimes he had no cabbages to spare.

The Tale of Mr. Tod:
Benjamin and Flopsy's children are kidnapped by notorious badger Tommy Brock. While Flopsy takes out her anger on Mr. Bouncer for letting Brock in, Benjamin and Peter chase after Brock, who hides out in the house of Mr. Tod (a fox). When Mr. Tod finds Brock sleeping in his bed, he sets a trap so that a bucket of water will fall on Brock. But Brock wakes up before Mr. Tod springs his trap, and the two get into a big scuffle, during which Peter and Benjamin rescue the children.

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Beatrix Potter spent many happy childhood holidays in the Lake District and in 1905, made it her home. By 1930 she had bought over 4000 acres of farmland with the money she had made from her 'little white books', many of which were inspired by and written in the Lake District. She bequeathed the land to The National Trust so that it should remain undeveloped and unspoilt forever.

Hill Top Farm: Bought by Beatrix Potter in 1905, Hill Top Farm inspired a number of her Tales.

Beatrix Potter had always been passionately interested in 'real' animals, and after her marriage to William Heelis she was able to settle in the Lake District permanently, and devote herself almost entirely to her farming.

Beatrix took a very active part in caring for her Lake District farms. Dressed in her clogs, shawl and old tweed skirt, she helped with the hay making, waded through mud to unblock drains and searched the fells for lost sheep. She said she was at her happiest when she was with her farm animals.

With her shepherd, Tom Storey, she bred Herdwick sheep - a rare and threatened breed indigenous to the Lake District. She encouraged the revival of Herdwick sheep in all her farms, and her sheep won most of the major prizes at local shows. In 1943, Beatrix became the first woman to be elected President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association, which was a great achievement and a sign of the high regard in which she was held by the local farming community.

Picture: Belgian Tapestry Three Kittens

Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet.

They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust.

But one day their mother--Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit--expected friends to tea; so she fetched the kittens indoors, to wash and dress them, before the fine company arrived.

First she scrubbed their faces (this one is Moppet).

Then she brushed their fur (this one is Mittens).

Then she combed their tails and whiskers (this is Tom Kitten).

Tom was very naughty, and he scratched.

Mrs. Tabitha dressed Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers; and then she took all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes out of a chest of drawers, in order to dress up her son Thomas.

Tom Kitten was very fat, and he had grown; several buttons burst off. His mother sewed them on again.

When the three kittens were ready, Mrs. Tabitha unwisely turned them out into the garden, to be out of the way while she made hot buttered toast.

"Now keep your frocks clean, children! You must walk on your hind legs. Keep away from the dirty ash- pit, and from Sally Henny Penny, and from the pigsty and the Puddle- ducks."

Moppet and Mittens walked down the garden path unsteadily. Presently they trod upon their pinafores and fell on their noses.

When they stood up there were several green smears!

"Let us climb up the rockery and sit on the garden wall," said Moppet.

They turned their pinafores back to front and went up with a skip and a jump; Moppet's white tucker fell down into the road.

Tom Kitten was quite unable to jump when walking upon his hind legs in trousers. He came up the rockery by degrees, breaking the ferns and shedding buttons right and left.

He was all in pieces when he reached the top of the wall.

Moppet and Mittens tried to pull him together; his hat fell off, and the rest of his buttons burst.

While they were in difficulties, there was a pit pat, paddle pat! and the three Puddle-ducks came along the hard high road, marching one behind the other and doing the goose step-- pit pat, paddle pat! pit pat, waddle pat!

They stopped and stood in a row and stared up at the kittens. They had very small eyes and looked surprised. Then the two duck-birds, Rebeccah and Jemima Puddle-duck, picked up the hat and tucker and put them on.

Mittens laughed so that she fell off the wall. Moppet and Tom descended after her; the pinafores and all the rest of Tom's clothes came off on the way down.

"Come! Mr. Drake Puddle-duck," said Moppet. "Come and help us to dress him! Come and button up Tom!"

Mr. Drake Puddle-duck advanced in a slow sideways manner and picked up the various articles.

But he put them on HIMSELF! They fitted him even worse than Tom Kitten.

"It's a very fine morning!" said Mr. Drake Puddle-duck.

And he and Jemima and Rebeccah Puddle-duck set off up the road, keeping step--pit pat, paddle pat! pit pat, waddle pat!

Then Tabitha Twitchit came down the garden and found her kittens on the wall with no clothes on.

She pulled them off the wall, smacked them, and took them back to the house.

"My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted," said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit.

She sent them upstairs; and I am sorry to say she told her friends that they were in bed with the measles-- which was not true.

Quite the contrary; they were not in bed: NOT in the least.

Somehow there were very extra-- ordinary noises overhead, which disturbed the dignity and repose of the tea party.

And I think that some day I shall have to make another, larger book, to tell you more about Tom Kitten!

As for the Puddle-ducks--they went into a pond.

The clothes all came off directly, because there were no buttons.

And Mr. Drake Puddle-duck, and Jemima and Rebeccah, have been looking for them ever since.

(from The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter, by Beatrix Potter)

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