BEATRIX Potter's world-famous cast list has been found on headstones in a London graveyard, writes Karen Barden

Peter Rabbett, Mr McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Mr Nutkins, Mr Brock and even Mr Tod are all buried at Brompton Cemetery, near to where the author lived from 1866 to 1913.

Chairman of the Beatrix Potter Society Judy Taylor said although there was no recorded evidence linking the characters' names to tombstones, it could well have been the case.

"Beatrix was a very realistic, down-to-earth woman.

She could easily have gone to the cemetery and spotted the names.

I think it is a charming idea."

Rumours have been rife at Brompton for some time that Potter had used the consecrated ground for inspiration for her beloved animal characters.

James Mackay serves on the Friends of Brompton Cemetery Committee and decided the mysterious tale needed investigating.

"Only recently the 250,000 burial sites were computerised and I could get on with it," said Mr Mackay.

"I found several of the characters, including Mr Tod, a very unusual spelling of the name.

"The thing that proves it for me was finding Jeremiah Fisher,

and then discovering in an old edition of Jeremy Fisher that the character was, in fact, down as Jeremiah."

His discovery has generated huge interest and, although there is an open day at the west London graveyard this weekend, Mr Mackay said he would not be particularly highlighting the Beatrix Potter connection.

"We don't want children chasing around the cemetery looking for their favourite characters," he told the Gazette.

Beatrix Potter lived out her lonely childhood at Bolton Gardens, in west London, spending most of her spare time drawing and painting plants and animals.

Her phenomenally successful Tale of Peter Rabbit was penned in 1893, but not printed until 1901.

The first edition of 8,000 sold out immediately.

Current sales stand at 32 million.

Gradually other animal characters appeared.

As Miss Taylor of the Beatrix Potter Society says, the author could well have slipped down the road to the cemetery for inspiration.

Her publisher Norman Dalziel Warne proposed marriage in 1905.

Miss Potter duly accepted - against the wishes of her parents - but

was hit by tragedy less than a month later when he died suddenly.

That same year Beatrix bought Hill Top, her beloved Lake District farm in Sawrey, the village where she continued to write and live out the rest of her life.

She married solicitor William Heelis in 1913.

Before she died in 1943, she made sure no one would benefit from her tombstone.

Beatrix Potter had decreed that she should be cremated and her ashes scattered by her shepherd Tom Storey in a secret Lakes location only known to the pair of them.