| abstract | - On a walk in her beloved Lake District one day, Beatrix Potter saw hoof prints that were smaller than those made by horses and shaped differently from those of deer or sheep. She imagined tiny horses ridden by fairies, and the idea grew into The Fairy Caravan. Potter wrote the story for her own enjoyment and for a thirteen-year-old American boy named Henry P. Coolidge who had visited her at her farm with his mother Gail in 1927. Since it was not intended for publication, Potter wrote the story using local idioms and actual locations. She also included characters based on herself, her friends, and her pets. Like the Peter Rabbit series of books, The Fairy Caravan features anthropomorphic animals. It is, however, written for older children in the style of a chapter book. The framing story concerns a guinea pig named Tuppenny and the circus he joins which is owned by a dog and a pony. The majority of the 23 chapters are about the circus and the adventures of its members. Some chapters, however, are unrelated or loosely-connected short stories presented as tales being told by the animals.
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