For the next seven years, Beatrix’s life became more and more complicated, as she juggled her obligations to her parents, to her art, and to Hill Top. She continued to produce her “little books,” but the farm and its real animals—its sheep, cows, pigs, and horses—assumed a greater importance with each passing month. While she wrote and drew at least one book a year through 1913, her heart was more and more fixed on Hill Top, on the other Lake District properties she began to acquire, and on the countryside of the Land between the Lakes.
Hill Top Farm, Sawrey, and the Lake District offered Beatrix Potter a new life, full of new hopes and new dreams. By 1913, it had offered her a new love. And thereby hangs yet another tale. . . .
Susan Wittig Albert
Resources
There are a great many excellent resources for a study of Beatrix Potter’s life and work and the Lake District of England at the turn of the century. Here are a few of those that I have found most useful in the research for this book and the series as a whole. Additional resource material is available on my Web site, www.mysterypartners.com.
Clark, Michael. Badgers. London: Whittet Books, 1994.
Denyer, Susan. At Home with Beatrix Potter. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000.
Hervy, Canon G.A.K. and J.A.G. Barnes. Natural History of the Lake District. London: Frederick Warne, 1970.
Jay, Eileen, Mary Noble, and Anne Stevenson Hobbs. A Victorian Naturalist: Beatrix Potter’s Drawings from the Armitt Collection. London: Frederick Warne, 1992.
Lane, Margaret. The Tale of Beatrix Potter, revised edition. London: Frederick Warne, 1968.
Linder, Leslie. A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter. London: Frederick Warne, 1971.
Potter, Beatrix. The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881-1897. Transcribed by Leslie Linder. London: Frederick Warne, New Edition, 1966.
Potter, Beatrix. Beatrix Potter’s Letters. Selected and edited by Judy Taylor. London: Frederick Warne, 1989.
Potter, Beatrix. Beatrix Potter: A Holiday Diary. Transcribed and edited, with a forward and a history of the Warne family, by Judy Taylor. London: The Beatrix Potter Society, 1996.
Rollinson, William. The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore. West Yorkshire, UK: Smith Settle Ltd., 1997.
Rollinson, William. Life and Tradition in the Lake District. Dalesman Books, 1981.
Taylor, Judy. Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman, revised edition. London: Frederick Warne, 1996.
Taylor, Judy, Joyce, Whalley, et al. Beatrix Potter, 1866- 1943: The Artist and Her World. London: Penguin Group, 1987.
Recipes from the Land between the Lakes
Sarah Barwick’s Lemon Bars
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
grated zest of 1 lemon
1⁄2 cup lemon juice
2⁄3 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
11⁄2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup old-fashioned oats
candied orange peel for garnish
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9‘×13‘ pan. Pour condensed milk into medium-sized bowl; stir in lemon zest and juice. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder in two additions, beating very well. Mix in the oats. Spread about two-thirds of this mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan, making a smooth, firm layer. Pour milk-lemon mixture over bottom layer. Spread remaining oat mixture evenly over lemon layer. (This is easier if you “dot” it in place, then smooth.). Bake for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool in pan; refrigerate for one hour. Cut into 16 squares. Decorate each square with a bit of candied orange peel. Refrigerate.
Mrs. Lythecoe’s Recipe for Rhubarb and Raspberry Tart
Pastry for one 10‘ pie shell
2 cups rhubarb (may be canned, fresh, or frozen), cut into
1⁄4‘ pieces
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
3⁄4 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1⁄2 cup whipping cream
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 400°. Place pastry in a 10‘ tart or pie pan. Distribute rhubarb evenly in bottom of pie pan and sprinkle with raspberries. In a mixing bowl, whisk sugar and eggs; add cream and vanilla and blend together. Pour egg-cream mixture over fruit and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until tart is firm in center.
Mrs. Beeton’s Veal and Ham Pie, Recipe No. 898
Published in 1861, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management was the cookery book that every middle-class Victorian bride asked for when she set up housekeeping. This recipe (which was prepared by Parsley Badger) appears on page 427 in the facsimile edition of the book.
2 pounds veal cutlets
2 tablespoons minced fresh savory herbs (parsley, thyme,
marjoram, sage)
strip of lemon peel finely minced
yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs
1⁄2 pound ham
puff crust
1⁄2 pint of water
nearly 1⁄2 pint of good strong gravy
yolk of one egg, beaten
1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 blades of pounded mace
pepper and salt to taste
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
MODE: Cut the veal into nice square pieces, and put a layer of them at the bottom of a pie-dish; sprinkle over these a portion of the herbs, spices, seasoning, lemon peel, and the yolks of the eggs cut in slices. Cut the ham very thin, and put a layer of this in. Proceed in this manner until the dish is full, so arranging it that the ham comes at the top. Lay a puff-paste on the edge of the dish, and pour in about 1⁄4 pint of water. Cover with crust, ornament it with leaves, brush it over with the yolk of an egg, and bake in a well-heated oven for 1 to 11⁄2 hours, or longer, should the pie be very large. When it is taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, nearly 1⁄2 pint of strong gravy. This should be made sufficiently good that, when cold, it may cut in a firm jelly. This pie may be very much enriched by adding a few mushrooms, oysters, or sweetbreads; but it will be found very good without any of the last-named additions.
TIME: 11⁄2 hour, or longer, should the pie be very large
AVERAGE COST: 3 shillings
SUFFICIENT for 5 or 6 persons
SEASONABLE: from March to October
Cumberland Sausage Rolls
1 pound pork
1 egg
3-4 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dry sage
1⁄2 teaspoon dry thyme
1⁄2 teaspoon dry savory
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
pastry for two pie shells
Preheat oven to 400°. Mix pork, egg, bread crumbs, herbs, salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into 32 pieces and roll into cigar-shaped sausages about 4‘ long. (Hint: divide the mixture into 4 parts, then divide each part into four. Roll out 16 sausages and cut each into two.) Heat oil in a skillet and fry the sausages until they are browned nicely. Cool. Roll out half the pastry to about 1⁄8‘ thickness, and cut in 16 wedges. Place a sausage at the wide end of one of the wedges. Roll up and place point side down on a cookie sheet. When 16 rolls have been completed, roll out the second pastry round and prepare 16 more rolls. Refrigerate the unbaked rolls until you are ready to bake. Bake for 15 minutes, until pastry is golden brown. Serve immediately.
Lady Longford’s Favorite Ginger Cake
21⁄2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons ground ginger
11⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
11⁄4 cups brown sugar, packed
4 eggs
1⁄4 cup grated fresh ginger root
grated zest of half a lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
&nb
sp; 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9‘ Bundt pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the grated ginger root, lemon zest, and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate. Dust lightly with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
Glossary
I have not included as much dialect as I would like in these novels, because dialect forms are difficult to read. One Cumbrian dialect speaker remarks: “It takes a bit of getting used to on paper; it looks very awkward, as if it had forgot to take off its walking boots and clomped onto the nice clean page too rudely.” It’s difficult to get it “right,” too, and there’s always disagreement among native speakers as to whether the nonnative writer has represented the sound of this or that word accurately.
The speech of Cumbria (which includes the former counties of Cumberland and Westmorland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire) reveals many Celtic, Anglian, and Norse-Irish influences, some of which are demonstrated in this glossary. In the Cottage Tales, I have tried to represent just enough of the sounds of Cumbrian speech and include enough of its vocabulary to give an idea of this important and distinctive regional dialect. Some of the words in this list are not dialect forms, strictly speaking, but are uncommon enough that a definition may be helpful. My main source is William Rollinson’s The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore.
auld old
beck a small stream (Old Norse bekkr)
bell-wether the leading sheep of a flock, who wears a bell around the neck
dustha fo you? What dustha think?
fell a mountain or a high hill (Icelandic, Danish, Swedish fjell)
flaysome din fearsome noise (flairt, to frighten)
happen perhaps (see mappen) Happen she’s missed the ferry.
heafed herdwick sheep instinctively recognize their native pastures, or heafs; that is, they are heafed to their home meadows.
hobthrush a hobgoblin or spirit that can do useful work but is just as likely to make mischief
hod on! stop (Old English, healdan, wait, hold)
joiner carpenter
loose box a separate stall for a horse, where the animal is free to move about
lug mark the word is derived from the old Norwegian word lög, which means “law.” When a farmer cuts a lug mark in his sheep’s ear, he is making his lawful owner’s mark on the animal.
maffle confused. Reet maffled me. It confused me greatly.
mappen perhaps (see happen) Mappen he’s lost his dog.
nae no (said emphatically)
Nobbut a reet ’ginner nothing but a proper beginner.
Pater familias latin for “father of the family,” and used by the Romans to designate the eldest or ranking male in the household
pickle a mischievous child or animal. Beatrix Potter dedicated her book The Tale of Tom Kitten to “All Pickles—Especially to Those That Get Upon My Garden Wall”
reet right, properly
Sett the system of underground burrows and chambers where a badger colony lives
Tatie Pot A favorite Lake District dish made of mutton, potatoes, carrots, onions, and black pudding (a traditional sausage made of pig’s blood, beef suet, oatmeal, and onions). For a recipe, see The Tale of Hill Top Farm.
twa two
verra very
wellies waterproof boots, named after the Duke of Wellington
yark to hit with a heavy cudgel
The Tale of Holly How Page 27
