Page "Beatrix Potter" Paragraph 3

With the proceeds from the books and a legacy from an aunt, Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey, a tiny village in the English Lake District near Ambleside in 1905.

Over the next several decades, she purchased additional farms to preserve the unique hill country landscape.

In 1913, at the age of 47, she married William Heelis, a respected local solicitor from Hawkshead.

Potter was also a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep and a prosperous farmer keenly interested in land preservation.

She continued to write, illustrate and design spin-off merchandise based on her children ’ s books for Warne until the duties of land management and diminishing eyesight made it difficult to continue.

Potter published over twenty-three books ; the best known are those written between 1902 and 1922.

She died on 22 December 1943 at her home in Near Sawrey at age 77, leaving almost all her property to the National Trust.

She is credited with preserving much of the land that now comprises the Lake District National Park.