Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” It is fortunate then that Helen Beatrix Potter was born 150 years ago, on 28 July, 1866, when it was customary for young Victorian women to be educated within the confines of their home, rather than via the rigours of school. For Potter, who grew up in Kensington, London, the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, Rupert Potter, and his wife, Helen Leech, education came courtesy of governesses; breaking with the cliche of the primly buttoned-up school ma’am-ish Victorian, the home schoolroom would prove formative for Potter, largely thanks to one Annie Carter. Charged with imparting wisdom and learning, she was only three years older than Potter and the two remained lifelong friends; it…
