Lake District holidays did not commence with the creation of the National Park. Even back in the late eighteenth century people who could afford the journey enjoyed relaxing in the beautiful "newly discovered" area of the Northwest. But the late-nineteenth century, with rail travel in full swing, families such as that of the young Beatrix Potter would rent a house for weeks at a time to get away from city life.
Lake District walks were her great pleasure. She fell in love with the Cumbrian countryside, and as the Beatrix Potter stories started to become well known and she began to prosper as a writer she bought a property which eventually became her main home - Hill Top Farm, now in the care of the National trust.
In early life she had fallen in love with her publisher. They became secretly engaged but he died at a young age before they could be married. Many years later she married William Heelis, a country lawyer.
Nowadays what was his office in Hawkshead is also a National Trust property operating as the Beatrix Potter Gallery. Many of her watercolours and sketches, originally produced for her books, are on display there. Other highlights of the gallery's displays are items relating to the film starting Renne Zellwegger, 'Miss Potter'.
She was an astute business woman. Not only the Beatrix Potter books but many other related products added to her wealth, much of which was put to use in purchasing land in the Lake District for conservation purposes. and especially to protect the traditional hill farming way of life and the area's distinctive Herdwick sheep.
The many books by Beatrix Potter are today popular around the world as is confirmed by the great numbers of international visitors who each year flock to see her old farmhouse. The gift of a Beatrix Potter complete collection
has become a treasured possession of thousand, children, teenagers and adults alike. And it's not only books
Hawkshead village is well worth a visit. It has the school that the 19th century poet laureate William Wordsworth attended, as well as the Beatrix Potter Gallery. Hill Top is not far away, on the road towards the Windermere ferry.
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