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“foreign [Music] I'm Tasman and today we are going to be discovering the tale of the two doll houses taking a look at the history and inspiration behind boat trips Potters well-loved story The Tale of Two bad mice for those of you who don't know Beatrix Potter she was a British author artist conservationist businesswoman and all-round pioneering woman way ahead of her Times best known for her palm-sized children's stories featuring Infamous painted characters such as Peter Rabbit and Tom kitten starting her journey with a promising career of scientific research in mycology and producing accurate paintings of fungi still used today refused to let rejection hinder her path she Blended her scientific accuracy with illustrations and Imagination for storytelling to produce 28 Illustrated books selling upwards of 250 million copies worldwide Beatrix fascinated by the natural world and Sciences Drew from a very young age and had numerous influences all around her growing up and living an incredibly isolated upbringing as many Rich Victorian children did she was amongst artistic circles via her parents growing up with stories of fairies reading authors such as Brothers Grimm and Lewis Carroll these influences are heavy present in her work regularly visiting the country and caring for animals were her Pastime and love collecting specimens and keeping a menagerie of pets that eventually would Inspire Illustrated letters to children and start her groundbreaking Journey as a best-selling and well-loved children's author and literary giant if you're anything like me these stories permeated your childhood whether it was the books animation Royal Ballet or even the newer movies her Charming Tales have brought Adventure imagination and important moral lessons into many a generation and this particular story is no exception so let's get into the tale of the two doll houses and how they inspired the book The Tale of the two bad mice [Music] if you're not familiar with the tale of the two bad mice I urge you to read the story if you haven't already you can get the free ebooks of it online or watch the animation on YouTube I'll have them Linked In the description for you if you want to check them out before watching this video but briefly for a little context this is what happens in the story published in 1904 the tale of the two bad mice is a story about you guessed it to bad mice following the adventures of a mice Hunker monkey and Tom Thumb in the setting of a child's dollhouse one day the two dolls Jane and Lucinda leave their tiny Victorian house and Hunker monkey and Tom Thumb two mischievous Brown mice entered the dollhouse upon entering the house they discover a beautiful table laid out with delicious plates of food upon discovering the food is inedible and made of plaster and quote harder than the hands at the cheese mongers they decide in frustration to smash it all up as it's no use to them they later discover the upstairs and eventually steal a feather bolster suitable for Hunker monkey's bed a wicker cradle for the children and several other odds and ends a chair bird cage and bookcase were also taken but refused to get into the mouse hole and generally they just make a dreadful mess when the dolls returned to the nursery with the child they discovered the destruction of the house and promised to get a policeman doll to guard it and her governess plans to set a mousetrap in the end the mice didn't turn out so bad as they pay their dues with a crooked Sixpence found under a rug and they dust the house every early morning so as you can see an extremely charming and fun story I personally never read the book as a child but frequently watched the animation in which Tom Thumb's disobedient nature is perfectly encapsulated by the voice acting of Rick mail not for eating so what inspired Potter to write this Tale the image of a dollhouse is extremely nostalgic the toy that reminds us of a time where our imaginations were Limitless where the smallest things could spark creativity and Beatrix was no different along with some lucky mice a beautiful dollhouse was at the heart of this story's inspiration shown in the illustrations as a pink light red brick Victorian house with bay windows a few balconies a tower and pitched roof it was a very Grand dollhouse suitable for any world to do Victorian child but where did the idea and references originate from well shown and referenced briefly but not accurately in the movie Miss Potter which I urge you to watch as it's really good butrix was actually an adult when she came across the worn Doll House that inspired her story being built in a basement by her then editor publisher and future romance Norman horn it was to be gifted to his niece Winifred for a Christmas gift she had seen it when it was under construction in the basement and only thought of using it as a setting for a story after it had gone to Warren's nice the house itself matches the illustrations as having brick details bay windows and a tower unfortunately we only have black and white photos of this house so Porter's illustrations really fill it in the gaps for its coloring along with the dollhouse she took inspiration from visiting her cousin's house and finding two mice caught in a cage trap after rescuing them she named them Tom Thumb and Hunker monkey and eventually became pets and models for her future drawings now that she had her protagonists for her setting the story was ready to be written after taking a week's holiday to Hastings Seaside town in the south of England and vacating in the Queen's Hotel she wrote three stories one of which was the future pie in the Patty pan and another being the bad mice warn favoring the mouse story got to work on the planning and editing process needing to illustrate her story though Beatrix required a way to draw her subject's Hunker monkey and Tom Thumb warn sent her a glass fronted Mouse house it's a mouse house with a ladder to an upstairs nesting Loft built to her specifications so that she could easily observe and draw the mice she'd rescued amongst the other props for the story illustrating the dollhouse for the story though was a little trickier unfortunately Beatrix faced a lot of discrimination and sexism in her life and her parents attitudes didn't help she didn't get to work from winifred's Finnish doll's house because of her mother's opinion on warn being a social inferior and a Tradesman which was incredibly ironic as a Potter's family riches also came from trades such as cotton Mills and printing houses regardless she decidedly made things very difficult by making the family Carriage unavailable to her daughter and refused to chaperone her to the parents home of Warren's niece to see it and draw it so as a result of her mother's meddling she had to work from photographs that Norman Warne gave her which are the ones you probably see now but you wouldn't know any difference so Beatrix continued to work from photos from the house and the Miniatures that Warren brought from hamleys the London toy shop to complete her final illustrations for the book of his miniature purchases Beatrix even remarked the things we'll do beautifully the house appearance is enough to cause indigestion in February of 1904 Bourne also bought what would be the House's tenants Lucinda and Jane yes Jane will suit the situation perfectly that feature in the story Beatrix remarked of this particular purchase thank you so much for the queer little dollies they are exactly what I wanted I will provide a print dress and a smile for Jane her little Stumpy feet are so funny I think I shall make a dear little book of it I shall be glad to get done with the rabbits I shall be very glad of the little stove and the ham even the lanky authoritative policeman doll was borrowed from Young Winifred Warne she was unsurprisingly reluctant to part with it but the doll was safely returned many years later she remembered Potter arriving at the house to borrow the doll and she talks about it here and she came up to the nursery and I remember seeing her come in in a dark curtain skirt and with a rather a plain looking lady with a bun and a man's umbrella you know and she wanted to borrow a policeman doll that she was going to put into the book and I remember our Nanny produced the doll and I thought oh they actually not see that again you see and rather upset it was going to be taken away so eventually the tale of the two bad mice was published in 1904 with over 20 000 copies produced and today has sold in numerous excess of that but moving on to sadder Affairs literally if you know a little bit about Beatrix Potter's life you'll know of the sad turn of events despite her parents disapproval of Norman Warne they did become unofficially engaged in 1905 just a year after the release of the book tragically the engagement sadly only lasted a month as Norman tragically died from blood disease a few weeks later what must have been a completely frustrating and stifling environment for Beatrix and many other women in the Victoria era to live in knowing these details and context of her situation brings a whole new set of interpretations to the story and the ones that follow it delving into deeper analysis of children's stories may be needless but the comparisons are very difficult to ignore when learning more about Beatrix as an adult for example when thinking about it closer the two mice for sure represent the working class society as opposed to the upper class dolls their actions directly mirror beatrix's own perceived rebellious nature for wanting to build a comfortable life with a disapproved man of lower status if we step into beatrix's shoes you can imagine her frustration of her situation and living vicariously through these deviant mice gleefully destroying the replica dollhouse that is obviously her own suppressing surroundings and all its artificiality inside interestingly going against parental expectations runs in the family as her younger brother Walter Bertram managed to keep his marriage to a wine Merchant's daughter a secret for over a decade due to class prejudices before he informed his parents pretty impressive huh equally her commentary on Victorian life and women's roles being artificial and as uninspiring as the plaster food is fake is evident in the dolls as having nothing to do but sit around pose and look pretty in their tiny red brick abode there are many ways you could perceive this small story with the extra background deepening the message of this 59-page book but we'll stop there for now for video length's sake as I'm sure you're interested in hearing of the second dollhouse in our Tale But if you have any of your own interpretations feel free to drop them in the comments below so on to the second dollhouse if any of you have been so lucky to have visited the beautiful 17th century Hilltop Cottage of the Lake District that Beatrix spent many years of her life in as a home and eventual Art Studio something that's on my bucket list for sure you should be familiar with this dollhouse located in the treasure room and you'll notice that it isn't quite the same as the warndoll house that's because it isn't despite what some may believe it wasn't her childhood doll's house and it wasn't the inspiration for the one Illustrated in the tale of two bad mice Beatrix actually acquired the house over 30 years after the book was published and she would have been around 73 years old at the time the house is thought to date to around 1865 and was bought locally and made a suitable storage of the food she had made for the book a National Trust house Steward at Hilltop said Beatrix acquired the doll's house in Hilltop from the sale of the estate of an amazing American lady called Rebecca Owen who lived near Hawke's head being so similar to the one that Norman Warne originally made that it was too good of an opportunity to miss the dollhouse Georgian in design Bears little resemblance to the real dollhouse aside from the red brick exterior with three large box rooms the balconies bay windows and the square Tower are all absent on this build so although not the true inspiration for the story it served as a reminder albeit it does actually contain all of the original Miniatures referenced in the story which you can recognize in person if you visit including the food that hunkamonka and Tom Thumb stole the cutlery saucepan griddle iron Bellows cradle bird cage and coal scuttle another interesting detail in the house is if you look closely Beatrix kept in touch with her last governess and Annie Carter who married becoming Annie Moore she went on to have eight children and the two lovely painted Miniatures above the fireplaces in the living room of the doll's house are actually of her two youngest children if you visited the hilltop house and have any more interesting information about it please comment below so we can learn some more so that's the tale of the two doll houses one we know of that was a mere Memento bought by Beatrix in her later years and the original worn house that inspired the tale of the two bad mice but you may be wondering where and what happened to the warndoll house unfortunately nobody knows for sure it seems like this important Potter artifact has gone missing though apparently it could have ended up at Hilltop house today according to Steward at Hilltop quoted from truly mildlytiny”