Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
A rabbit named Cecily Parsley brews ale for gentlemen. Two rabbits sit smoking pipes outside the Pen Inn — a pub whose sign is a quill pen and an inkpot. Guinea-pigs tend a small garden. A nurse called Nanny Nettycoat is conjured from Beatrix's own childhood. Six short verses, six small worlds, the second of her two rhyme books.
The material is even older than Appley Dapply. The Cecily Parsley booklet had been hand-illustrated in January 1897 — twenty-five years earlier — and put away in a portfolio. The Guinea-pigs' Garden paintings dated from 1893. The "Nanny Nettycoat" rhyme came from Beatrix's own childhood at Camfield Place — her grandmother's house, where she had been "awakened at four in the morning by the song of the birds," under the eye of a nurse the children called Nanny Nettycoat.
Following the success of Appley Dapply in 1917, Frederick Warne asked for a sequel. Beatrix did not feel like making new pictures — "my eyes are getting weak and I am tired of doing them" — so she gathered up the old work, copied a few drawings fresh, and pieced them together. The book reached the shops in 1922. It was the last book she would actively prepare.
The cover shown is the original edition. Amazon carries the copies in print today.
Buy on Amazon→❦ Everything else in the Sanctuary is free, and this is the shelf that keeps it so. Bea's Corner is an Amazon Associate — buy through these links and a little comes back to us, at no extra cost to you. With thanks for keeping the doors open.
Particulars
- Trade edition
- 1922, Frederick Warne & Co.
- Source material
- Cecily Parsley booklet (January 1897); Guinea-pigs' Garden paintings (1893); Nanny Nettycoat manuscript (August 1897)
- Dedication
- "For little Peter of New Zealand" (Dr. R. P. Tuckey, then a small boy)
- Origin
- Old drawings revived after Beatrix declined to make new pictures — "my eyes are getting weak"
- Position
- The last book Beatrix actively prepared during her writing career
Curiosities
- ❦Beatrix's own childhood inspired the Nanny Nettycoat verse. Her childhood nurse at Camfield Place was "that little old lady with white woollen stockings, black velvet slippers and a mob-cap, who must have been just like my grandmother." She remembered tea by candlelight, "guttering, homely, lop-sided with fascinating snuffers in a tin dish."
- ❦One painting came from a small disaster. In 1893 Beatrix borrowed a guinea-pig from a friend — "a very particular guinea-pig with a long white ruff, known as Queen Elizabeth" — to paint. The pig "took to eating blotting paper, pasteboard, string and other curious substances, and expired in the night." Beatrix gave the painting to its owner instead.
- ❦The original Cecily Parsley booklet was hand-illustrated in January 1897. Its title page reads: "Nursery Rhymes — Cecily Parsley drawings original, Beatrix Potter, Jan. '97." Beatrix wrote: "I never met Cecily in print. It is an old rhyme."
- ❦The cover plan changed late. The rabbit-with-tray picture was first intended for the cover — Beatrix decided it looked "too much like Ap. Dap. cover figure" and moved it to the title page. The wheelbarrow picture became the cover instead.
- ❦The Pen Inn in one rhyme has a sign of an ink-bottle and quill — Beatrix's small joke for a pub frequented by rabbit-readers. She admitted she could not draw dressed rabbits coming to the inn door: "it comes to my mind's eye deserted!"
From the same shelf
Your Sanctuary Collection
Your collection is currently empty.