Talk report – A prettyish kind of a little wilderness
May 2025 – A prettyish kind of a little wilderness: Landscape and Gardens in the novels of Jane Austen – Professor Timothy Mowl
This was the first of a series of lectures organised as a joint venture by Bradford on Avon Museum and the Preservation Trust to be held monthly at the United Church. There was a very encouraging attendance to hear local resident Professor Timothy Mowl, author of many books on gardens and architecture and a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker. 2025 marks 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen, the enduringly popular author of a series of novels closely associated with Bath and other locations across southern England, so his subject seemed particularly appropriate.
Timothy made the observation that so much of the action in Austen’s novels takes place in the open air, in gardens and the surrounding landscape. His lecture was well illustrated: the first image, drawn by Rex Whistler, depicted a young woman with her elder companion, (perhaps Mrs Bennet and one of her daughters) beneath a weeping willow (suggesting sorrow) in a spacious landscape with the big house in the distance (perhaps Pemberley). Extracts from Austen’s novels were recited throughout Timothy’s presentation to emphasise the significance of gardens and the wider landscape to the author.
It was pointed out that Jane Austen’s life spanned a period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when fashions were rapidly evolving, not least in garden design. The period began with Capability Brown, creator of such places as Stourhead with its wide greensward, occasional clumps of trees and a serpentine lake – all predictable and rather bland (in our speaker’s opinion). Next came William Gilpin and his promotion of the picturesque with its emphasis on wild nature, light and dark and ruins. Finally along came Humphrey Repton with his own interpretation of the picturesque and the Gothic with the addition of hermitages and rustic cottages.
Pleasure grounds surrounded the big house. These exhibited various plants and, most importantly, shrubberies. It was these shady areas where the many assignations in Austen’s novels most likely took place. The pleasure grounds were the domain of the ladies of the house who played an active role in their creation and maintenance. Jane Austen’s novels show that she possessed a great love and acute interest in landscape and gardens which perhaps inspired much of her writing.
Roger Jones