Beatrix Potter Hill Top House
~ Beatrix Potter Hill Top House ~
Hey, do you want to see the house where the author of the Peter Rabbit series books lived? Oh goody, me too! Let’s hop back to our childhood imagination.
Ready?
Beatrix Potter, the children’s author and illustrator for the Peter Rabbit books lived in this farmhouse called Hill Top house. I love the name!
Here’s the hippity hop about Beatrix Potter and Hill Top.
It was her second home away from London. She bought Hill Top house along with its 34 acre working farm in 1906.
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding illustrations are from Hill Top House.
The houses’ kitchen range, staircase, front door, and dresser from Hill Top are some of the rooms depicted in the Samuel Whiskers tale.
Other Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit tales featuring Hill Top house, the farm, and charming villages surrounding it are The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan, The Tale of Tom Kitten, and The Tale of Jeminma Puddle-Duck.
Hill Top House is delightful, isn’t it? Gazing at the Farmhouse conjures up memories of childhood. This is a place Beatrix Potter lived and wrote some of her books! I am having a hard time finding the right words to express its Historical importance It’s magic!
Beatrix Potter left the house to The National Trust. She had a heartwarming request in her will that the inside of the home be “left as if she had just gone out to the post.” “A fire burning in the hearth, cups and saucers on the table ready for a visitor.”
Please note, that I had to slap myself from using too many exclamation points.
The wing on the left was built by Potter for John Cannon and his family. He was her farm manager. His children and wife were illustrated in The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.
I wish there were some photos of the interior to show you.
I read the entrance hall still has the original stone flooring. The kitchen range I mentioned above was replaced with an identical one in the 1980s. The 1906 wallpaper hung by Potter was reproduced and replaced in 1987.
In short, touring the house and its circa furniture and accessories along with items seen in the books probably makes a visitor feel like they stepped into their childhood imagination.
This is charming Tower Bank Arms that is a few hundred yards away from Hill Top. It was used for illustration in The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.
Jemima was a real-life duck at Hill Top Farm who tried to get away from Mrs. Cannon and her children who wanted her eggs because the duck could not be trusted with incubation.
1913 photo of Beatrix Potter and her real dog Kep written about in Puddle-Duck
If you are lucky enough to visit the Beatrix Potter House in Cumbria, England you will see her favorite things displayed. Each room in the house has references to a picture from a Peter Rabbit Tale. The house is small but gets thousands of visitors. Tours by The National Trust re-open this month on February 15th.
I wish I could be a bunny in someone’s pocket and hop to see Hill Top House.
As a child, I did not live on a farm or have ducks. We did have a Dalmatian dog named Lady who performed tricks like shaking hands with the neighbor kids.
A black kitten named Twinkle who suffered a tragic death that broke my heart forever…..and
we had lots and lots of pet bunnies!
See lots more Historical houses here.
