Mr and Mrs Dixon live in Dixon's Farm on the eastern shore of the Lake. It is the closest farmhouse to Wild Cat Island. The bay in the lake, nearest the farm, is called Shark Bay, because it is where Roger nearly caught a great pike.
The Swallows get their milk from the Dixons (SA6, SD11); presumably Mrs Walker pays for it. They provide molasses for the explorers, and Mr Dixon gives John bait for fishing.
Mr Dixon is just called Dixon by his wife. He is tall and thin (SA6). He is not very talkative, but becomes a loyal and friendly native to the Swallows and the Ds during their visits to the Lake. After Dick rescues his sheep, there is a queer kind of alliance between Dick and Mr Dixon, though they were neither of them great talkers (WH13).
Mrs Dixon used to be the nurse of Mrs Callum, which is why the Ds (Dick and Dot) are staying with the Dixons in Winter Holiday. As Mrs Dixon was brought up in the Lake area, this suggests that Mrs Callum came from the area too. The Ds had come from the station the night before after their railway journey with Mrs Dixon (WH1); she had travelled from the south with them as Mrs Dixon said about the return tickets and (quarantine) certificates that Mrs Callum, poor lamb, ..... gave them (their papers) to me just as we were catching the train and catching trains in towns (is) not like going up to the station here (WH9).
Mrs Dixon recalled the big frost of 1895: Not what it was in '95, with coaches with four horses and horns blowing crossing the lake from side to side (WH15), and There was three or four of them (ice yachts) rushing about on the lake in '95, and racing for a silver cup. She went on talking of the racing of the ice yachts all those years ago, when she had been a young girl and herself had skated from one end of the lake to the other (WH16). When Captain Flint and Dick went up to the observatory one evening with glasses and the telescope to look at stars (and planets?) they came back late for supper, and Mrs Dixon who had known Captain Flint when he was a boy, said that growing older and going round the world brought no sense to some folk (WH23).
Mrs Dixon was baking pork pies for which she had a name throughout the district (WH1), and later gives the Amazons two pork pies, one of which she was meaning to send to Mrs Blackett (WH4). When letters to their schools about their quarantine are required for the D's, Mrs Blackett writes them for Mrs Dixon to sign as Mrs Dixon said she was no hand at letter-writing and Dixon was no better (WH9).
Old Silas is the farmhand on Dixon's Farm (WH1). He is sometimes bothered with rheumatism (WH9).
They have a dog, Roy. It is a mixed farm with sheep as well as cows; Mr Dixon's mark is a red patch or stain on the left shoulder of his sheep (WH12).
Appearances[]
- Swallows and Amazons: Mr Dixon has a walk-on role as taciturn husband to Mrs Dixon, the provider of milk to the Swallows on Wild Cat Island and to Captain Flint in the Houseboat; rows Mrs Dixon to the island with porridge after the storm.
- Swallowdale: Mr Dixon stammers the lengthy speech "I'm right glad to see ye" to the Swallows on their return.
- Winter Holiday: Of all the friendly natives, Mr Dixon is perhaps the one who knows the most about the plans of the North Polar Expedition before Captain Flint arrives. After Dick rescues one of Mr Dixon's sheep which had become cragfast, he finds ways to repay him, partly motivated by a determination to out-do those staying with his neighbours, the Jacksons. This involves building the Ds a sledge (the Swallows and the Amazons use a sledge from Beckfoot) and later providing the sledge with a mast and sail. He also provides them with fleeces and skins (which are used onboard the Fram).