Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published in London on October 2, 1902. As we celebrate the 120th anniversary of this children’s classic, we remember Miss Potter's love of the countryside, and explore landscapes that inspired other familiar writers.
Of course Miss Potter was known for her love of nature, and what better place to begin, than with the Lake District the birthplace of many of her magical tales.
As a child Beatrix Potter spent many family holidays in the Lake District, and fell in love with this incredibly beautiful part of England. It made such an impression upon her that in 1905, at the age of 39, she used the proceeds from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, to buy Hill Top, a small working farm in the village of Near Sawrey, making it her main home thereafter.
For over twenty years, Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived at Monk’s House, a country retreat in East Sussex that they transformed into a fine English cottage garden complete with an orchard.
Virginia Woolf was greatly inspired by the garden and its stunning views over the Downs. She even set up her writing room there to get the best of the views.
‘Our England is a garden that is full of stately views…’ So begins Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Glory of the Garden, which celebrates gardeners and gardening everywhere.
In 1902 Kipling bought Bateman’s a 17th-century house in rural Burwash; it remained his home until his death. Some five years later, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, using the money awarded to improve his Sussex gardens.
Once home to the Brontë sisters at Haworth, authors of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the massive expanse that makes up the Yorkshire Moors was very much alive in their works.