Jessica Miller

She took to the natural sciences, and while surprised, her parents were quite encouraging for the time.

Beatrix and Bertram both loved spending long days in the garden.

They rambled through the flowerbeds, and when they were permitted, went beyond the confines of their own cottage garden and into the fields and forests of Kensington.

Surrounded by trees and rocks mottled with lichen and moss, with cool, damp soil underfoot and a bright tapestry of birdsong weaving through the branches above them, I felt very far from the city.

Here, they filled their pockets with treasures to take back to the schoolroom.

Birds' nests and shells, leaves and rocks.

They carefully transported live creatures back to the schoolroom too.

And soon, one corner of the room was a dedicated menagerie.

where salamanders and newts swam in bowls.

Mites nibbled at the edges of their sawdust nests.

Frogs riveted, worms slithered, and tortoises chewed thoughtfully on crisp, green lettuce leaves.

Beatrix and Bertram both delighted in observing their creatures and sketching their likenesses.

The pair made etchings, crayon drawings, and paintings of the animals in their camp.

At weekends, Beatrix and Bertram went farther afield.

They visited Kensington Gardens, wandering through its gracious rose gardens, stopping to sail toy boats at the round pond in the garden center.

On hot, sunny days, they sometimes went swimming, or they ventured to Regent's Park in the heart of the city, where the London Zoological Gardens could be found.

They joined the thronging crowds, dressed in their best going-out clothes, all eager to catch a glimpse of animals from faraway lands.

Here, Beatrix would have admired the elephants and orangutans and the jewel-colored parrots in the aviary.

While the monkeys and elephants always drew crowds of excited onlookers, Beatrix also sought out the less popular animals.

She loved to examine the intricate scales of the rattlesnakes that draped themselves over rocks in the reptile house, and the frilled lizards that watched her almost as intently as she watched them through their gleaming eyes.