Potter was born into an upper-middle-class family in London on 28 July 1866. Her parents were both members of the nouveau riche, having inherited a fortune earned by their immediate forebears. Thus, though they were not aristocrats with a tradition of leisure and service, they had the means to live as they chose, without a heritage of past family deportment. Neither Rupert nor Helen Potter worked for a living, and they had full-time child care and ample household help to deal with their large home. As a young girl Potter spent most of her time on the third floor of their Kensington home, cared for by nannies and governesses, with her parents rarely troubling themselves about her. She took her meals separately and seldom saw her parents except for a short visit in the evening. Her pets, small animals that were sometimes hardly tame (frogs, mice, rats--never larger than cats and thus appropriate for urban, third-floor life) were sometimes her only companions, though she was seldom alone--a nanny was always posted to keep watch. Her parents led lives of stultifying regularity, where the exuberance and outbursts of childhood could hardly be tolerated.
This is a free page. This page contains 182 words. This
biography contains 10,586 words (approx. 35 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our (Helen) Beatrix Potter Access Pass.
