the Marshall family wanted to sell their Monk Coniston estate. Beatrix Potter's husband, William Heelis of Sawrey, was solicitor for the Marshall family and so was aware of the possibility early on. One of the farms within the estate had previously been owned by Potter's great grandfather and so Beatrix was interested in buying the estate as a whole rather than allowing it to be sold off piecemeal for tourist development; however, she could not afford the whole £15,000–£18,000 asking price without selling other properties that she wanted to keep. Neither the National Trust nor the Forestry Commission could obtain the whole sum quickly enough and Potter's mother would not lend her the money. Potter wrote that 'Tarn Hows is such a favourite walk that on the face of it you might think it was a case for public subscription; but it would not work. My mother is known to be so wealthy that nobody would subscribe to help me!' Potter and Heelis negotiated to buy the whole estate for £15,000, relying on the National Trust to be able to appeal to the public to raise enough to buy back 2,090 acres from her. During the period when Potter and Heelis owned the whole estate it was successfully managed by the two of them. The National Trust's appeal had raised nearly enough before the summer of 1930 and they bought most of the land from Potter – she donated the last part anonymously. When the Trust took over in September it asked Potter to carry on managing the land on its behalf. Bruce Thompson, the National Trust agent for its properties in the north of England, wrote in The Lake District and the National Trust in 1936 that "The Tarns and its setting were given to the nation by Sir S. H. Scott in 1930 as part of the Trust's general scheme for securing a large part of the Monk Coniston estate. The gift was made in memory of Sir James and Lady Scott." Presumably he donated the funds to the appeal to buy this portion of the estate. The remaining half of the Monk Coniston estate was bequeathed by Potter in her will to the National Trust. National Trust era Tarn Hows was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1965. The National Trust have made a number of more recent changes to the area including moving the