著者

眞方 陽子

出版者

神戸女学院大学

雑誌

女性学評論 (ISSN:09136630)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.25, pp.75-93, 2011-03

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This paper aims to describe how Beatrix Potter, upper middele-class woman in late Victorian times, became independently-minded in the process of her growth. First of all I introduced Beatrix Potter's secret journal written in code between the ages of 15 and 30(from 1881 to 1896) and cracked by Leslie Linder in 1958, to meka known the background of the early adult life of Beatrix. I also tried to point out that as a young woman Beatrix was eager to do fungus research scientifically and even submitted a Paper to The Linnean Society of London under the title of " on the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae- Miss Helen B.Potter", which was not read by Beatrix but by a deputy, as ladies were not allowed to attend the Society's Meetings. Although she experienced not a few rebuffs, she determines to make her "little books" in the mid-thirties and her talent as the artist and storyteller was recognized - eventually she became one of the most famous children's writers of all time. The purchase of a working farm in Near Sawrey called Hill Top in 1905 provided her with a firm foothold to open a new life and yield independence all the more because she became interested in sheep and enthusiastic about farming. In middle age she married her solicitor and the Lake District, where she had spent family holidays between the ages of 16 to 25, was to become her permanent home. During more than twenty years of her life, she devoted, as a country woman, all her time to farming, breedeing the Herdwick sheep of the Lakeland fells. Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, whom Beatrix first met when she was sixteen-year-old(1882), had a considerable effect upon her. He introduced her to his conviction that the natural beauty of the Lake District should be preserved and later in 1895 he formed with his friends The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty. She was faithful to his belief throughout her life and became a benefactor of The National Trust. When she died on22 December 1943, The National Trust became the main beneficiary.