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Potter Pets
Peter Rabbit was a figment of the imagination of the very
creative Beatrix Potter. The author was born in 1866 in
Victorian Kensington London. Her home was large and sumptuous,
her family rich. She was raised with several servants, a shy
girl who wiled away many hours of every day by
herself.
Beatrix Potter learned many artistic things from her governess.
She taught the writer about music, art, reading and writing.
Her only other regular company was her full time nurse. Beatrix
Potter had one brother. Bernard, six years her junior was away
at boarding school most of the time and Beatrix companion only
during the summer months.
June, July and August Beatrix Potter and Bernard Potter
together relished the outdoors of Scotland's Lake District,
where the family spent its holidays. Bernard and Beatrix ran
through woods and fields, chasing wild animals and sometimes
catching a few. They drew sketches of their favorite wild
creatures living in their natural habitats.
From these ideal summer days grew Beatrix Potter's adoration of
wildlife and the natural outdoors. One local influence and
adult friend, Canon Rawnsley, vicar of the Scots Lake District,
captured her attention with his stories about how tourism and
manufacturing can destroy the environment.
The Potter parents were overprotective of both Beatrix and
Bernard. They discouraged their son and daughter from making
any friends of the other local children their age. Beatrix and
Bernard became closer to each other because of this. Together
they created a vast pet collection from the wild creatures of
nearby fields and woods.
They kept these creatures in their own school room. There were
times when Beatrix Potter and brother Bernard were caregivers
from a lizard, several water newts, a snake, a rabbit, a turtle
and a frog all at the same time. As the two siblings cared for
the habitat, they sketched them as well. From these creature
friends and their sketches grew the animal characters of the
Beatrix Potter books.
Benjamin Bouncer was Beatrix Potter's favorite animal pal.
Benjamin was Peter Rabbit's predecessor. Beatrix found him in a
London bird shop. She kept the purchase from her mother and
father, sneaking him into her nursery in a paper bag without
telling anyone except Bernard. She devised a story around
Benjamin of a bunny that loved hot buttered toast and used to
run quickly into the living room every time the tea bell rang.
He knew tea time meant toast time too.
Peter Piper, another Beatrix Potter creation, came from the
antics of Beatrix and Bernard's favorite buck rabbit. They
bought the bunny in Belgium, and noted that this particular
rabbit loved to lie on the rug in front of the fireplace
hearth. The Potter tales told of a Peter Piper that learned
tricks quickly, jumped through hoops, rang bells and played the
tambourine.
by Dustin Cannon - 17th July 2007
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Dustin Cannon is owner of http://www.JustArticlesVIP.com and writes
on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic
Dustin recommends you visit: http://www.worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk/
Source: http://www.bb-articles.com
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