The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (37 page)

“Goodbye,” Miss Potter said. “Until the next time.”

1910

 

 

 

 

 

Nineteen-ten was another busy year in Beatrix Potter’s life. Early in the year, she was involved for the first (and last) time in her life in national politics, for free trade was on the political agenda, and it was something she cared about very much. If this issue sounds familiar, there’s a reason, for Britain had done away with important tariffs in an effort to “globalize” its trading arena, and the arguments for and against free trade were just like those we hear today.

Beatrix took a personal view of the matter. A nationalist and protectionist, she had hoped to have her Peter Rabbit dolls made by a British dollmaker, but the Germans offered the cheapest bid, so her dolls—much to her distress—were being produced in Germany. At the rate things were going, she feared, Warne might even find it cheaper to have her books printed in the United States and shipped to England! Beatrix did her bit against the cause of free trade by contributing some sixty hand-drawn, hand-colored posters, including one that portrayed a Peter Rabbit doll with a costly price tag, displaying the legend “Made in Germany” and a note that German warships were being built on the profits of Germany’s trade with England.

The Liberals carried the day, though. Free trade marched on, and Beatrix returned to drawing “pigs and mice,” as she wrote to Harold Warne. She spent the spring putting the finishing touches on
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse
, which was scheduled for October publication, and managing (from a distance) both Hill Top Farm and her 1909 purchase, Castle Farm. In this story, Applebeck Orchard is my own invention; there is no such property in the area of the Sawreys, Near and Far, and the only orchard that Beatrix cared about was the little orchard she planted at Hill Top. “There are quantities of apples, very few pears, & plums,” she wrote to Millie Warne during her visit there in August 1910, and added that she had picked three bunches of grapes from her vines.

Beatrix’s visits to Hill Top, though, were few and fleeting in this year, for her parents claimed almost all her attention and most of her energy. They spent their summer holiday at Helm Farm, in Bowness, an unlikely place for them, but all they could find at the last moment, the arrangements having been delayed (as Beatrix tells Will in this book) because of her father’s health. She was less active creatively at this time, and the time she could spare for herself was focused on her farms. As Linda Lear remarks, in
Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
, by 1910, “the balance of [her] creative energy had shifted,” and she was more interested in her real animals at her farm in the Lakes than the fictional creatures in the “little books.” From now on, she would write and draw less for her own creative pleasure and more to earn money to support Hill Top and Castle farms.

Other Lakeland issues—such as footpaths and flying boats—interested her, too. While I have invented the footpath incident for the plot of this book, Beatrix was a longtime advocate of open footpaths, like her friend Canon Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust. In 1912, she was elected to a Sawrey footpath committee, a testimony to her acceptance as a farmer and countrywoman who understood issues of boundaries and rights of way. The hydroplane factory mentioned by Will Heelis, however, is a real one; only hinted at in this book, it will be a major part of the next book in this series.

Nineteen-ten may also have been a time of romance, as well. It is not clear from the existing records (chiefly Beatrix’s letters) exactly when she and Will Heelis first acknowledged their love for each other. It seems that there was no official engagement until 1912, although in 1913, she wrote to her friend Fanny Cooper, “He has waited six years already.” Whatever the chronology of their relationship, it was a friendship that evolved into love over time, in the context of Beatrix’s continuing loyalty to Norman’s memory. Linda Lear writes:

And so I think it is appropriate for their engagement (albeit a secret one) to begin in this book, even though the time frame isn’t quite consistent with the few known facts we have about their relationship.

I hope you think so, too.

 

Susan Wittig Albert
Bertram, Texas, September 2009

Resources

Beeton, Isabella.
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861.
Facsimile edition. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1969.

Denyer, Susan.
At Home with Beatrix Potter.
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 2000.

Lear, Linda.
Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature.
Allen Lane (Penguin UK), London, and St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2007.

Potter, Beatrix.
Beatrix Potter’s Letters.
Selected and edited by Judy Taylor. Frederick Warne, London, 1989.

Potter, Beatrix.
The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881-1897
. New edition. Transcribed by Leslie Linder. Frederick Warne, London, 1966.

Rollinson, William.
The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore.
Smith Settle Ltd, West Yorkshire, UK, 1997.

Taylor, Judy.
Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman.
Revised edition. Frederick Warne, London, 1996.

Recipes from the Land Between the Lakes

To every 2 pounds of flour allow 1 teaspoonful of tartaric acid, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, 2 breakfast-cupfuls of cold milk. Let the tartaric acid and salt be reduced to the finest possible powder; then mix them well with the flour. Dissolve the soda in the milk, and pour it several times from one basin to another, before adding it to the flour. Work the whole quickly into a light dough, divide it into 2 loaves, put them into a well-heated oven immediately, and bake for an hour. Sour milk or buttermilk may be used, but then a little less acid will be needed.

In her journal, Beatrix describes the blackberry as “a kindly berry, it ripens in the rain.” After she and Will Heelis were married in 1913, they lived at Castle Cottage. In her book
A Tale of Beatrix Potter
, Margaret Lane describes their dining room table, where “a law book and papers and deed-boxes” occupied one end, and “bramble jelly and toasted teacakes” the other. Perhaps the bramble jelly Miss Lane mentions was made from Dimity Woodcock’s recipe. Bramble jelly is also used as a glaze for cheesecakes, pies, and flans, and as an accompaniment to mutton, pork, ham, duck, and goose.

TO PREPARE JUICE

Sort and wash the berries; remove any stems or caps. Put in a pan with the water, cover, and simmer gently for about 20-25 minutes, until soft. Place in a jelly bag and hang over a large bowl to strain out the juice.

 

TO MAKE JELLY

Measure 4 cups juice into a kettle. Add sugar and stir well. Boil over high heat to 110°C (220°F), or until mixture sheets from a spoon and jelly has reached the setting point. Remove from heat; skim off foam. Pour jelly immediately into hot containers and seal. Makes about 5 six-ounce glasses.

Ginger beer was brewed in England from the 1700s on. Its predecessor was mead, which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. A honey beverage, it was naturally carbonated and yeast-fermented, often including ginger, cloves, and mace. In ginger beer, which was popular through the early 1900s, sugar replaced honey, and fresh Jamaican ginger root, with lemon, became the dominant flavor.

Bruise the ginger, and put into a large earthenware pan, with the sugar and cream of tartar; peel the lemons, squeeze out the juice, strain it, and add, with the peel, to the other ingredients; then pour over the water boiling hot. When it has stood until it is only just warm, add the yeast, stir the contents of the pan, cover with a cloth, and let it remain near the fire for 12 hours. Then skim off the yeast and pour the liquor off into another vessel, taking care not to shake it, so as to leave the sediment; bottle it immediately, cork it tightly; in 3 or 4 days, it will be fit for use.

Treacle
is the word used in Britain for syrup made in the process of refining sugarcane. It can range from very light to very dark. The lighter syrup (produced from the first boiling of the sugarcane juice) is called light treacle or golden syrup. The second boiling produces a much darker syrup, which British cooks call treacle (or dark treacle) and Americans call molasses (or dark molasses). The third boiling produces what both British and Americans call blackstrap molasses, which is very dark, with a slightly bitter edge.

In this recipe, Parsley uses dark treacle (molasses). She also uses the shredded suet that is traditional for sweet and savory puddings and mincemeat. Suet has a high melting point that results in a light and smoothly textured pastry, whether baked or steamed. If you can’t find this British specialty, freeze 4 ounces of butter and grate it.