Autograph Letter Signed ("Beatrix Heelis") to Mrs. Edwards. Sawrey, 10 November 1943
Sawrey: , 1943. Item #06744
An Unpublished Beatrix Potter Letter Written Six Weeks Before Her Death
Concerning Her Declining Health, Nurse Edwards, Hill Top Farm, Wartime Labor Shortages,
and the Management of Her Lake District Estate
POTTER, Beatrix (1866-1943). Autograph Letter Signed ("Beatrix Heelis") to Mrs. Edwards. Sawrey, 10 November 1943.
Four pages on a folded bifolium, approximately 7 x 4 1/2 inches, written entirely in ink on all four pages. Folded for mailing with the original horizontal and vertical creases. Two neat closed fold separations measuring approximately 2 1/8 inches at the upper fold and 1 1/4 inches at the left-hand fold, entirely without loss and not affecting the text. A few trivial spots of soiling and signs of handling, otherwise remarkably well preserved, the manuscript exceptionally clean, with the ink dark and completely legible throughout.
An important unpublished late letter written barely six weeks before Beatrix Potter's death, providing a vivid account of her failing health, the management of Hill Top and her surrounding farms during the Second World War, the shortage of experienced agricultural labor, and the indispensable assistance of Nurse Edwards.
Potter begins by thanking Mrs. Edwards for writing and expresses relief that the recipient's baby has recovered after what "might have been a very bad" illness. She then reflects upon her own condition following a recent accident, hoping that "the bruises and aches are not troublesome," before discussing the continuing difficulties she herself is experiencing. She reports that Dr. Brownlie has examined her but could find no evidence of appendicitis despite considerable tenderness, and remarks characteristically that although she has become "a bit groggy," she nevertheless "can take all of us!!"
Much of the letter concerns the practical realities of managing her Lake District properties during wartime. Potter laments the acute shortage of competent farm servants, observing that they "are very difficult to find; there are not sufficient farm servants and they all want to go near towns." She describes the unexpected departure of the shepherd at Troutbeck after fifteen years of service and her efforts to secure a suitable replacement before winter. The letter vividly illustrates the increasingly difficult task of maintaining her farming interests in wartime Britain while advancing age and declining health limited her own ability to supervise the estate personally.
Of particular interest is Potter's discussion of Nurse Edwards, who appears throughout her final correspondence as one of her principal carers. Judy Taylor's edition of Beatrix Potter's Letters records Nurse Edwards caring for Potter during the closing weeks of her life, including the letter to Stephanie Duke dated 10 December 1943 in which Potter notes, "Nurse Edwards is here over the New Year, so I am looked after." The present letter, written exactly one month earlier and addressed directly to Mrs. Edwards, provides valuable unpublished evidence of that close relationship and forms part of the final sequence of Potter's surviving correspondence.
The letter belongs to the closing chapter of Potter's life. By the autumn of 1943 she was seventy-seven years old and suffering from recurrent bronchitis and increasing physical weakness, yet she remained deeply engaged in the administration of her beloved farms and tenants throughout the Near Sawrey district. Six weeks after writing this letter, on 22 December 1943, Beatrix Potter died at Castle Cottage, Near Sawrey.
An unpublished and historically important late letter which illuminates the daily concerns of one of Britain's most beloved authors during the final weeks of her life, combining deeply personal reflections on her health with unusually detailed observations on wartime farming and estate management in the English Lake District.
Price: $14,500.00