Hill Top Farm and Beatrix Potter

 Dear Gentle Readers

Today we ventured out to Near Sawrey and nearby Hill Top Farm, residence of famed children's author, Beatrix Potter. The roads were winding, narrow and bordered on either side by nasty, car swiping rock walls. I managed to avoid them all.

This is the garden leading up to Beatrix's cottage.

This is her cottage. When I was here 18 years ago with Ros, it was closed and we could only see the garden. Today we are in luck (and we bought tickets so I know it's open).

Potter bought Hill Top Farm in 1905 with proceeds from her children's books, namely The Story of Peter Rabbit, The Story of Squirrel Nutkin, The Story of Jeremy Fisher and so on. She lived here until her death in 1943.

You walk straight into the kitchen and this was the wood stove she cooked on. Far cry from our modern conveniences.

In the same room is this marvelous marble fireplace to keep her warm on those cold winter nights.

Being an author, she was very well read and had an extensive library. I noticed The Complete Works of William Shakespeare amongst her collection.

This looking down from the landing of the staircase towards the kitchen.

There was a grandfather clock on this landing.

This was her bed that she bought because she liked old furniture. She said old furniture had character. The green trim around the top was done by her.

This bedspread belonged to her parents, the date is the date of their wedding and the initials are of her parents, Rupert Potter and Helen Leech. Colleen, you would appreciate the work that has gone into this. The chair to the right belonged to her grandmother.

In another room she had a doll's house. The next picture shows the interior.

It was exquisite with amazing miniature furniture and other household articles. These were real works of art sadly lacking in doll's houses of today.

This is a portrait of Beatrix in her younger years.

And this was one from her later years.

This was her writing desk where she wrote and illustrated her books. She developed her own code for her diary and it was only broken in 1958 by Leslie Linder.

She also had an orchard including this very large apple tree.

After leaving Hill Top we went through Ambleside to see the most photographed item there, the Bridge House. As you can see, it is built on a small stone bridge directly over a river. It was, at one time, the residence for a family of eight, two parents and six children. Can you imagine trying to cook, sleep and manage six children in a house so small? Makes our houses look palatial.

The upper story was only accessible by these stairs outside the house. I imagine that's where the beds were.

We then drove onto Grassmere and you can't visit there without going to this, the famous Gingerbread Shop. We bought some of the delicious gingerbread to sustain us on our travels.

The shop was originally a schoolhouse run by the very famous poet, William Wordsworth and his wife in the 19th century. I learnt his famous "Daffodils" poem in school. 

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host of golden daffodils".

He is buried in the nearby church graveyard, along with his wife, daughter and other family members. A very simple grave for such a talented poet.

We did try to drive up to Kirkstone Pass, up these narrow winding roads with the ever-present stone walls on either side, but when we got near the top, the road was closed! Navigating these roads was challenging and if you met a car coming the other way (and we met quite a few) they or you would have to back up to a turnout, a small widening of the road to enable two cars to pass each other. You can see one at the bottom of the hill.

This was the view looking back down to Ambleside, with one of the many lakes - hence the name - Lakes District.

After this strenuous drive, we returned to our hotel to recover and rest.