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
Hardwicke Rawnsley Willingham Franklin Rawnsley, became an author and schoolmaster. He was educated at Uppingham School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was prominent in university athletics and rowing. He gained a third class degree in natural science in 1874 and was awarded his Master of Arts degree in 1875. In the same year he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England and became the first chaplain of Clifton College mission, ministering to one of Bristol's poorest areas. In 1877 Rawnsley was ordained as a priest, and in 1878 he took up the post of Vicar of Wray, Windermere,