Guest Blog: To Bath In May - Brenda Wells

I go in search of Jane Austen and find very much more

The beautiful city of Bath features in many of Jane Austen's novels. The stunning Regency Royal Crescent and Circus are well known landmarks within its cityscape. Accentuated by deliciously warm, cream stonework, which extends out from the city centre into the nearby, lush green countryside; be it in manor houses or humble cottages. Many such dwellings can be found scattered across the pages of the popular Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey, where characters with complex lives, struggle to find the love and happiness that should be justly theirs.

Music fills the Bath Streets today, as musicians entertain passers-by; filling the city with life.

Bath continues to be a popular tourist destination today. 250 years after the birth of this author of such renown, its streets throng with many who go in search of a glimpse of all that is Georgian, Regency, anything through which a connection might be made to dear Jane.

Afternoon tea at the Pump Room, taken beneath a chandelier, while listening to the resident pianist, remains as elegant as ever; while encouraging the watcher to imagine, that at any moment a young woman in pale muslin might be found in the company of a tall-hatted gentleman, who is assuring her of his devotion and undying protection. 

While the grandeur of Bath serves to tempt the writer to create stories of romance, danger, rescue and reconciliation, it is the wider countryside which causes my fingers to twitch for want of a pen.

Heavy rainfall in the West Country enables its vegetation to grow rich and verdant across a landscape, which hosts a number of both ancient and more modern constructions. The countryside around Box is separated into a network of small fields by hedges, filled with hawthorn trees, wild roses and which wear an edging of Queen Anne's lace. Cutting a swathe through this bucolic splendour is the great Box railway tunnel. An amazing feat of engineering and the work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, construction for this began in 1836. It was completed in 1841 and passes through Box Hill between Bath and Chippenham; it is 2.95 km in length. Now sufficiently settled into the landscape, it does not offend the eye, interestingly it contains its own legend, worthy of any novelist. It has long been said that on 9th April, the morning of Brunel's birthday; it is possible to see the sunrise through the tunnel, an extraordinary notion but sadly untrue. Although it is likely that this is a possibility on the morning of his sister Emma Joan’s birthday, which fell on 6th April, apparently it may have shone through on three years out of four during the 1830’s. A delightful gesture on the part of a loving brother, if this is the case. 

Travelling further in a SW direction, rolling fields further reveal the richness which shows off Avebury Henge and Stone Circle while somewhat further afield the compelling Stonehenge stands proudly beside the A303.

As a person who hails originally from the South, there is no greater pleasure than being inspired as a writer, by the land of my ancestors. I share below some examples and hope that they will bring a flavour of the magnificent West Country to you this summer.

View from Box Hill

The famed tunnel beneath my feet

Conceals mechanical beasts of motion

Which carry passengers across this plain

The view beyond it, a vast, pastoral

patchwork panorama

Which reaches back into history

Revisiting legends and stories of the ancients

Who worked and lived off

These very same, fertile lands

Vigorous hedgerows divide up neat fields

Allowing for crops and animal pasture

In shimmering colours of pale straw and rich greens

As August approaches, the way is marked

To harvest, when the fields will thrum

To other the rhythm of mechanical beasts

There to gather in corn and barley

Needed to feed a growing population

The summer day is still, sultry and hot

The air filled with the scent of warmed hay

A natural world vibrant in nature

Bees, butterflies and insects

Hover above, this timeless, rustic scene

Set out so beautifully, below our feet

Bath View

A city of stone

Fringed with green

Cosy within its valley bed

Trickles its way down a scaffolding of domesticity

Unfolding itself into each home

Fashioned of neatly cut cream blocks

Each one surrounded by a garden

Of shrubs, herbs and vegetables

Beds of climbing roses and clematis

Garden furniture, set out neatly

Waiting, ready for a new day

Or to host a late glass of wine before dusk

In each plot, a project progressing

Building materials stand, stored

Stacked neatly, ready for use

Patiently pausing at the day’s close

In front of the apple trees, rests

The humble, reliable, wheelbarrow

Ready to continue its work tomorrow

Brenda Wells - is a teacher and a writer, she has published two books of poetry: Seasons of Poetry (2022) and Time Tumbled Words (2024) she runs the Poetry Plus spoken word group in Manningtree and occasionally delivers writers’ workshops. She lives in the Stour Valley where walking in the countryside often inspires the writing of nature poetry. For many years she worked as a lecturer, specialising in teaching challenging and neurodiverse teenagers, latterly focusing on a teacher training role.

Poetry Plus meets on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, at 7.30 in the Pump Room of the Red Lion, South Street, Manningtree, do email for further information: poetry.plus@gmx.com.