I’m, Mike Buckle, 70yrs…
I started Cheddington History Facebook in September 2020..
I have aphasia If I miss some words, or grammar etc, on my posts,
In the beginning, I couldn’t talk, I went to a speech therapist twice weekly for a year. They rebooted my brain so I could talk again. It was very scary, frustrating and I was very tired. That was about thirteen years ago. I still have Aphasia, it doesn’t go away, unfortunately. When it’s written down, it helps.
You can learn things, such as tennis which I now play and Cheddington History Facebook..we have 1,361 members. I post twice weekly on CHF.
This is James McGregor and Beatrix Potter at Dunkeld, Scotland.
Last year, on 4th December, I entered this article to the competition in Alan Dell Memorial Award, Bucks Family History Society for the best article on family or local history.
And surprise, I received an email this week…Dear Mike
I am pleased to confirm that your article “James McGregor and Beatrix Potter at Dunkeld, Scotland” has been awarded 2nd place in the 2025 Alan Dell Memorial Award.Congratulations - the judges really enjoyed reading such an interesting piece of research.
This is the article…
McGregor was the head gardener at Blair Castle near Dunkeld, he was able to creating the “Great Garden” of the 9-acre Hercules Garden, which would have been the talk of the area at the time.
Beatrix Potter was at Eastwood House, Dunkeld with her family. So Beatrix knew about Blair Castle and Hercules Garden. Both (James and Beatrix) being in the same place at the same time.
September 4, 1893, Beatrix Potter
On this day, while on holiday in Scotland with her family, she penned a note to cheer the son of a friend, a little lad who had been confined to his bed by illness. One more note of well wishes for a speedy recovery would not have stood out at all, and being a woman of imagination and compassion intertwined, Beatrix wrote the ailing child a story instead.
An eight page letter to be exact, with scribbled illustrations accompanying the tale and describing the doings of a very special family of bunnies and their adventurous blue-coated brother whom she christened Peter Rabbit.
"My dear Noel,
I don’t know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.They lived with their mother in a sand bank under the root of a big fir tree.
“Now my dears,” said old Mrs. Bunny, “you may go into the field or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden.”Flopsy, Mopsy & Cottontail, who were good little rabbits, went down the lane to gather blackberries, but Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor’s garden and squeezed underneath the gate.
First he ate some lettuce, and some broad beans, then some radishes, and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley; but round the end of a cucumber frame whom should he meet but Mr McGregor!
Mr McGregor was planting out young cabbages but he jumped up & ran after Peter waving a rake & calling out ‘Stop thief’!
Peter was most dreadfully frightened & rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.
He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages and the other shoe amongst the potatoes. After losing them he ran on four legs & went faster, so that I think he would have got away altogether, if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net and got caught fast by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.
Mr McGregor came up with a basket which he intended to pop on the top of Peter, but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behind, and this time he found the gate, slipped underneath and ran home safely.
Mr McGregor hung up the little jacket & shoes for a scarecrow, to frighten the black birds.
Peter was ill during the evening, in consequence of overeating himself. His mother sent him to bed and gave him a dose of camomile [sic] tea, but Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
I am coming back to London next Thursday, so I hope I shall see you soon, and the new baby. I remain, dear Noel, yours affectionately
Beatrix Potter"So, it’s possible? Beatrix used McGregor gardener name…as McGregor was the head gardener at Hercules Garden, Blair Castle.
James was the head gardener at Mentmore Towers, he had moved from Dunkeld to Mentmore, Buckinghamshire in 1903.
So I contacted the Beatrix Potter Society to find out if it was possible that Beatrix used the McGregor gardener name for her books based on knowing him from Blair Castle.
Here is their rely: "..Blair Castle was certainly known to the Potters when they were in Perthshire and Beatrix’s father, Rupert Potter, took some photographs there.
There have in the past been one or two other contenders for the privilege of the ‘McGregor’ name (and I see that there is a folly in the gardens at Blair Castle called McGregor’s Folly, though named after a friend of one of the Duchesses rather than the gardener), but your suggestion is as likely as any of them and particularly apt as he was a gardener, too!"
The next time…if you read Peter Rabbit, about McGregor, think of James McGregor, the head gardener at Mentmore in 1903.
4th September 1893, Eastwood House, Dunkeld.
4th September 1893, Eastwood House, Dunkeld.
Beatrix Potter in 1894 with her father Rupert and brother Bertram.
Beatrix offered the story to a number of publishers and was turned down. There had been significant growth in the market for children’s books with coloured illustrations, and publishers were uninterested in the forty-two pen and ink drawings with which Potter had illustrated Peter Rabbit. Undaunted, she chose to have 250 copies privately printed and bound in simple grey paper covers, all at her own expense.
The 250 copies were distributed to Potter’s family and friends and proved very popular, with Arthur Conan Doyle obtaining a copy for his own children.
Peter Rabbit first edition, first printing. December 1901.
James McGregor
Mentmore Towers
Regards
Mike