The Notional Trust

THE TALE OF THE NOTIONAL TRUST The rats are after Beatrix Potter's magical legacy at High Yewdale Farm Once upon a time there was a Cumbrian lad called Jonny who lived with lots of Herdwick sheep on a most unusual farm. What made High Yewdale Farm unusual was not the sheep, because the Lake District had a great many; nor was it the splendid view, because there are also lots of those near Coniston Water. It was The Visitor. Wearing a big shawl and clogs that clomped, she would often come to the farm for Cumberland sausage, bringing camomile tea for the rabbits which, although Jonny was too polite to say so, did seem odd, and sketch-books full of animals, and birds who wore clothes that were always, in the tales she wrote, getting them into trouble or else getting them out of it One of them was called Jemima Puddleduck and The Visitor looked a bit like her, but Beatrix Potter, for that was her real name, was a match for any foxy gentleman. She owned the farm and when she died she left it to the Notional Trust, but she must have had some notions about how far to trust it because she set the condition that the farm and its fells must be "let and managed" exactly as she had done. And Jonny stayed on with the sheep, and lots more Visitors came. But then the Trust people bought computers and a book called Trust the Bottom Line and said that the farm did not make enough money and must be broken up. When people objected, they said that when Mrs Potter said to keep things "the same", that really meant "embrace change" to "ensure a positive, vibrant future". In a Yewdale tree you can hear this retort: Cuck - cuck-cuck-cur-r-r cuck-k-k! Trust on the riddle; fiddle me fee. This time, it is not Squirrel Nutkin scolding. © The Times Tuesday 23 August 2005