|
A
book review of Beatrix Potter’s
“The Fairy Caravan”
by Laura Hart - as published in the
Summer 2004 issue of the Fell
Pony Journal
If you thought that Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck were all there
was to Beatrix Potter’s writings – think again!
From
England, where all things ‘fairy’ seem to emanate, came her book “The Fairy
Caravan”. This book is a treat not only for children of many ages, but for
adults it is quite intriguing and offers a wealth of
insight into the British country life and language.
Indeed in her preface Potter admits that she only published this
compilation at the insistence of her “friends beyond the sea” and that she
“left them (the stories) in the homely idiom of our old north country
speech”. As one of her friends
beyond the sea, I am grateful to her for this!
Words such as lish, kine, stirk, merks, and of course fell will send you
running for your colloquial dictionary.
(I discovered that lish means active and stirk means young bullock or
heifer). But there is also
uveco, demerara, kesh, mowdie-warps, snod, Oxo, and my personal favorites –
Pony Billy in Pringle Wood (the fairy wood) “always going widdershins” and
whinnying “Hinny Ho! Where are you
hiding, Paddy Pig?”
My walking dictionary/encyclopedia, Sue
Millard, informs me that Oxo is a stock cube made from beef extracts (and in
fact told me a rather “interesting” joke about Oxo which I will not repeat
here!)
American words, such as concatenation, will challenge all ages
also. (Merriam-Webster tells me it
means ‘to link together in a series or chain’.)
“The Fairy Caravan” is really more than a story – it is stories within
stories within stories. Beginning in
the
Land
of
Green Ginger
with a guinea-pig named Tuppenny the book progresses through his adventures
when he joins a traveling circus.
Tuppenny runs away from his homeland of Green Ginger due to an
unfortunate incident in which his usually short hair grows incredibly long.
Tuppenny specifically tried to grow his hair long in order to be more
fashionable (a situation which if I had more time to develop could have all
sorts of implications to the continuing struggles which face the Fell pony
breed).
During Tuppenny’s travels, he and the circus come upon
many adventures and enjoy many stories. One
of their adventures includes a herd of Beatrix Potter’s beloved Herdwick
sheep. Another one includes a
delightfully silly story about a cat who attempts to run a mouse seminary –
predictably the seminary is a failure!
And how charming is it that the sheep speak of their
“Mistress Heelis”? (Heelis was
Beatrix Potter’s married name).
The fairy bits come into play in ways such as Pony Billy
being shod backwards (which is apparently the ‘fairy’ method) so that when
he goes out searching for his friend Paddy Pig it looks as if he has walked from
the opposite direction! There is
also the fact that the traveling circus is invisible to the “Big Folks” as
long as each animal in the caravan had a fern seed on them!
And of course, Paddy Pig must be rescued from the fairies in Pringle
Wood….
So much of this book reminds me of my own personal
experiences in England
and with the Fell pony world. Some
examples include: One of the
Herdwick sheep’s names is Belle Lingcropper (Lingcropper being a famous named
Fell pony). The sheep explain that
“It is a sign of snow, when the sheep come down to the gates…” (I have
been told that Fells know to come down off of their hills to the gates to get
hay when the weather is bad too). And
the sheep also say that “Such things will happen,” when one of the sheep
told of how two of her sheep friends died in a blizzard (I have found that the
British view on adversity is very much like this; with much acceptance.)
Overall I found this book charming from many perspectives
– but mostly the atmosphere of northern
England
which pervades this book.
Lest you think, though, that the book is only about fairies, culture,
dictionaries, and nothing else….
You can learn such moral lessons as
“But everybody knows that it is unsafe to allow a delirious pig to sleep on
the cold ground”….but just to be most paradoxical – there is this
exchange; “That story,” said Pony Billy,
“has no moral.” “But it is
very pretty,” said Xarifa, the dormouse, suddenly wakening up.
Whether you read the Fairy Caravan for “prettiness” or for
“morals”…you will not be disappointed!
RESOURCES AND REFERENCES:
Light, Nikki, Rights Assistant, Frederick Warne & Co.,
London,
England, www.peterrabbit.com, www.penguin.co.uk/
Millard,
Sue, via email and the Fell Pony and
Countryside Museums,
Cumbria
,
England
www.fellpony.f9.co.uk/
Potter, Beatrix, 1929, 1951, 1957, 1966:
“The Fairy Caravan”, Frederick
Warne & Co.,
London
,
England
Rollinson, W., 1997:
“The Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore” Smith
Settle Ltd, Otley, West Yorkshire,
England.
Taylor, Whalley, Hobbs, and Battrick, 1987: “Beatrix
Potter, 1866-1943; The Artist and her World”, Frederick Warne & Co.
and the National Trust,
London,
England
©
No part of this article may be reprinted without
permission of the Fell Pony Journal, the author, and/or Frederick Warne & Co.
Home
Conservation in the 21st Century
"Fell History" by Sue Millard
Where do We Go From Here? - S. Millard
What is a Fell pony?
Not a Friesian
Miracles of Survival
Conservancy Press Release
FPS Liaison Resignation
Horse Sense - pony with a purpose
Fell pony; ALBC Conservation Priority List
Fell pony Temperament and Maturity
Beatrix Potter - Fairy Caravan
NA Fell pony History & Liaison Intro
Equine Bovine Mag
Fell Convention UK - Equine Journal
SE Equine Monthly
Fell Pony Journal
The Reach
Horsemens Yankee Pedlar
Rare Breeds Journal
Merlin at Kentucky Horse Park
ALBC
Rural Heritage
| 