Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit

Millions of children around the world, including us, thrilled to the adventures of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny. We began wondering if those wonderful creatures, who held their escapades in Mr. McGregor's garden, were based on real-life animals. If so, these truly were "angel animals" of historical significance who still delight the hearts of children a century later. We visited the Internet and found a website (www.peterrabbit.com) devoted to Beatrix Potter's writings. Below are some things we learned.

* Since her childhood, Beatrix Potter kept rabbits as pets. Her first rabbit, Benjamin H. Bouncer, or Bounce, was inspiration for the fictional character, Benjamin Bunny. She wrote about Benjamin as a "noisy, cheerful, determined animal, inclined to attack strangers, and also a rascal." The little girl bought her rabbit friend from a London bird shop and secretly carried him in a paper bag into her nursery.

* When Beatrix Potter was 19 years old, between 1885 to 1907, she spent summer holidays in the English countryside of Lingholm and Fawe Park on the northwestern side of Derwentwater. She began sketching local scenes, especially the gardens and woods that were filled with red squirrels and woodland creatures. Mrs. Potter's pet hedgehog was named Mrs. Tiggy Winkle and became the hero of her book, THE TALE OF MRS. TIGGY WINKLE.

* Beatrix Potter bought a farm in the Lake District where visitors today look for Tom Kitten or Jemima Puddleduck. On this farm she bred prize pigs. One became the model for Pigling Bland, another of the characters in her stories.

Beatrix Potter sent a picture letter of illustrated animal stories to a sick child. This letter became the source of her first book, THE TALES OF PETER RABBIT, published for the public by Frederick Warne & Company.

Mrs. Potter died in 1943. She donated 4,000 acres of Lake District land to the National Trust. This special place in "angel animal" history will always be preserved.

Were/are you a Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter fan?

Allen and Linda Anderson
E-mail: angelanimals@aol.com
Angel Animals Network
Website: www.angelanimals.net