Beatrix Potter Castle near Lake Windermere. Here Beatrix met Hardwicke Rawnsley, vicar of Wray and later the founding secretary of the National Trust, whose interest in the countryside and country life inspired the same in Beatrix and who was to have a lasting impact on her life. At about the age of 14, Beatrix began to keep a diary. It was written in a code of her own devising which was a simple letter for letter substitution. Her "Journal" was important to the development of her creativity, serving as both sketchbook and literary experiment: in tiny handwriting she reported on society, recorded
Robert Hunter (National Trust) Hunter's other most important contribution, in Chubb's view, was the negotiation of the terms for acquiring the National Telephone Company's system, which saved another £8.5m. In 1883 Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley was engaged in a campaign to stop the construction of railways from quarries in the fells overlooking Buttermere, in the English Lake District, with damaging effect on the unspoilt scenery. He secured the support of John Ruskin, Octavia Hill and Hunter, and was successful in stopping the development. Both Hunter and Rawnsley, building on an idea put forward by Ruskin, advocated a trust that could buy and preserve places of