* Potter ( Beatrix , 1866-1943). Three autograph letters signed, 1937-43, all 3 written to Mrs Brooke in Beatrix Potter's hand, from Castle Cottage, Sawrey: the first dated 25 October 1937, pertaining to the procurement of a nurse and related advertising and enquiries, "I have had to go to Coniston for other business so I called on Nurse Reid - an attractive Scotch girl, the farmer has some excuse!!", and going on to say that she intends to consult Dr Brownlee "he is a sensible man for an opinion about nurses", returning to Nurse Reid and a "comical kettle o' fish" saying that "[Nurse Reid] informed me in a pretty but determined Scotch accent that she has not registered as a midwife and will not do so!", signed H.B. Heelis, written in brown ink to both sides of a single sheet of thin paper (with some show-through), 2 folds, some creasing, unevenly torn along top edge, small piece missing from right-hand edge (not affecting manuscript), 24.5 x 19.5 cm, the second dated 26 October 1937, continuing the conversation about nurses, mentioning Dr Brownlee's opinion, asking for financial figures, expressing hope that she will not have help arrange lodgings, and ending "Apparently the Bowness nurse who is not a midwife is being upheld in her post; so Miss Furninger is not getting all her own way", signed Beatrix Heelis, written in brown ink to one side of a single sheet of thin paper, 4 folds, some small faint creases, unevenly torn along top edge, small piece missing from right-hand edge (just clipping one word), 24.5 x 19.5 cm; the third dated 1 November 1943, pertaining to the rationing of petrol during WWII, and musings on essential journeys for nurses as opposed to unreasonable journeys by children in taxis to attend "genteel governess-school daily", as well as a description of being stopped by police herself "I had left my identity card at home & the insurance... ", and a comment on the frivolity of an invitation to cocktails at such a time "A very vulgar world", signed Beatrix Potter, written in black ink on both sides of a sheet of lined paper, 2 folds, slightly creased to top and bottom edges (and a little frayed to former), 20 x 16 cm, together with 5 photographs of Katherine Brooke, 4 of her as a small child and the other showing her as a young woman (Qty: 8)NOTESProvenance: Bequeathed by the recipient to her mother and thence by descent. Katherine Madge Brooke (1891-1991), known by her second name, was the daughter of The Hon. John Cross, land agent to the High Legh Estates in Cheshire, and granddaughter of British statesman and Conservative politician Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross, who notably served as Home Secretary, and was a close friend and advisor of Queen Victoria. Whilst growing up Katherine was a frequent visitor to her grandfather's London home where she remembered being introduced to Lord Derby and the Prime Minister. When war broke out in 1914 Katherine travelled alone to France as an untrained army volunteer, where she was based at the training centre and hospital in Etaples. Before her death, 17 days before reaching the age of 100, Katherine was one of the last surviving women volunteers who served unpaid on the front line in France during WWI. After the war she subsequently returned to France to assist with the War Graves Scheme. She later recalled her war work in recorded interviews which are held at The Imperial War Museum. In 1923 Katherine married Basil Brooke DSO, a captain in the Navy, and they went to live at High Wray House in Ambleside. She recalled her association with Beatrix Potter in a recorded interview in later life. In it she states that, although unable to remember her very first meeting with the writer, she could recall vividly the day (sometime in the early 1930s) that Beatrix Potter drew up in a car outside her house and, stepping out to accost her in the garden, announced "I am going to start a Nursing Association for Hawkshead and you are going to be my Secretary". Katherine's response was a terrified refusal, but Beatrix was not to be diverted from her purpose, and so the two women set up the first local district nursing service. Katherine spoke of her enormous respect and admiration for Beatrix Potter's sharp intellect and knowledge, saying "she was an extraordinary person" with a "marvellous brain". She went on to say that Beatrix did a great deal behind the scenes for the local community, but that her work wasn't recognised in Hawkshead, saying "she didn't go down well". She also described Beatrix's indifference to appearance, saying that she dressed as an old country woman, always in the same old-fashioned looking clothes, and that later on she took up country dancing with her husband.
