from South Kensington to give a course of lessons in the three villages, and our humble home industry in the lake district was set on foot." Instruction also included techniques for metal repoussé, taught by the Swiss butler from Edith Rawnsley's family home. The young Beatrix Potter holidayed at Wray Castle with her parents in 1882. They met Rawnsley, who became a firm friend, particularly of Beatrix. His views on preserving the natural beauty of the Lake District had a lasting effect on her. He was the first published author she had met, and he took a great interest in her drawings, supporting her in her determination to have them taken seriously and later encouraging her to publish her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. They remained close for the rest of Rawnsley's lifetime, and Noel Rawnsley maintained in his later years that Potter had been the real love of his father's life. Campaigning against railway development In 1883 parliamentary approval was given for a scheme to build a railway line through the Newlands Valley to carry slate from quarries; the valley was, and is, regarded as one of the most beautiful and tranquil in the Lake District. A rival scheme was proposed, to run between Ennerdale Water and the coast. Rawnsley spearheaded a campaign to stop both. Ruskin gave his support, although after the failure of his Thirlmere campaign he was not optimistic about the outcome. Rawnsley held meetings, lobbied assiduously and wrote prolifically to legislators and newspapers. In a letter to The Standard he said: Rawnsley founded the Derwentwater and Borrowdale Defence Committee and enlisted the support of the Commons Preservation Society and the Kyrle Society, two established campaigning conservation organisations headed by well-known figures including Octavia and Miranda Hill, George Shaw Lefevre, James Bryce and Robert Hunter. The public paid heed, and protests became so widespread and so strong that the schemes were dropped. Griffiths writes that although by no means solely responsible for the successful outcome of the campaign, Rawnsley "became a local and national hero almost overnight, and a new awareness of landscape preservation came to the fore". The success of the campaign led to the formation of the Lake District Defence Society (later to become The Friends of the Lake District). Rawnsley proposed the foundation of the organisation at a meeting of the Wordsworth Society in 1883. He maintained that for the sake