The Fairy Caravan

"Through many changing seasons these tales have walked and talked with me. They were not meant for printing; I have left them in the homely idiom of our old north country speech. I send them on the insistence of friends beyond the sea."

— BEATRIX POTTER

Introduction

The Fairy Caravan is a longer, more episodic work than Beatrix Potter’s famous "Little Books." Published in 1929, it tells the story of Tuppenny, a guinea-pig who joins the Alexander and William Circus, a secret traveling caravan of animals that wanders through the fells of the Lake District, hidden from the eyes of the "Big Folk."

Far from the domestic settings of Sawrey, these stories explore the wilder, more mystical side of the north country, filled with wise sheep, fairy oak trees, and the ancient folklore of the hills.

Table of Contents

1. Chapter I: Tuppenny
2. Chapter II: The Travelling Circus
3. Chapter III: Moving Camp
4. Chapter IV: Pony Billy in the Pound
5. Chapter V: The Misses Pussycats’ Shop
6. Chapter VI: Little Mouse
7. Chapter VII: Springtime in Birds’ Place
8. Chapter VIII: The Pigmy Elephant
9. Chapter IX: By Wilfin Beck
10. Chapter X: The Sheep
11. Chapter XI: Habbitrot
12. Chapter XII: Across the Ford
13. Chapter XIII: Codlin Croft Orchard
14. Chapter XIV: Demerara Sugar
15. Chapter XV: Pony Billy’s Search
16. Chapter XVI: Effect of Toadstool Tartlets
17. Chapter XVII: Fairy Horseshoes
18. Chapter XVIII: The Woods by Moonlight
19. Chapter XIX: Mary Ellen
20. Chapter XX: Iky Shepster’s Play
21. Chapter XXI: The Veterinary Retriever
22. Chapter XXII: Cuckoo Brow Lane
23. Chapter XXIII: The Fairy in the Oak