Chapter 1, Bolton Gardens Summary and Analysis

Helen Beatrix Potter was born July 28th, 1866 in Bolton Gardens. Her parents were wealthy Victorians. Her parents schedule was mundane and routine, largely leaving out Beatrix. The Potter family never marked Christmas, but her family would go to the sea for several weeks around Easter while servants cleaned the home. When summer came, the Potters would travel to their home in Scotland, where her father would hunt and fish. This life was terribly boring for the Potters' daughter. Beatrix's nurse was a Scottish Calvinist who kept her clean and fed her well. As a child, she was quiet, solitary and watched others frequently, which led her, like so many other children, to create her own world.

Potter was born in a time and to a social group which was indifferent to childhood. Her parents' wealth was inherited...