Four Ripples

 Beatrix Potter was always a shrewd observer of society, but a reluctant participant. Her first passion was art, and her second was nature. She turned the third floor schoolroom in her family’s London home into a menagerie where uncaged rabbits, ducks, frogs and mice became her first models. “Why cannot one be content to look?” She mused, “I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result.” She was a voracious reader with a razor-sharp wit, a delightful imagination and delicious sense of humor. All these skills made her an excellent teller of stories; her talent for drawing and painting made her their perfect illustrator. When Beatrix was a child, her family summered in the Lake District. As an adult, she moved there permanently, working tirelessly to preserve the farms and the wildlife. To ensure her legacy would live on, she named the National Trust as the main beneficiary in her will.