My Secret Quill - Victorian Photos and inspiration by Lady T L Jennings



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Photos from Bath and the Jane Austen Festival

romantic Bath England

Bath–Probably the most romantic town in the British Empire! (Or the world!)
The town Bath is famous for many reasons: it is a World Heritage Site with a lot of increadibly beautiful Gregorgian houses and cresents (houses built in a halfmoon shaped), it has the only hot spring in England which were used alredy by the Romans, however most important (according to me and my fellow “Janeites”): Jane Austen lived here between 1801-1806 and two of her novels “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion” are set in Bath, which at the time was the most fashionable place spend the season.

victorian photo

This is Pulteney Bridge, which crosses the River Avon and was built in 1773. I had tea and scones in one of the coffeeshops (third window from the left) with the view of the river.

Italian garden style

This is what it is all about, really: Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, the man guilty of stealing hearts since 1813. (Although, I will admit I have always had a terriby weak spot for Mr Wickham...)

Tea room in Bath

Mr Darcy’s portrait hung in the Regency Tea Room at the Jane Austen Centre (the tea and the accompanying crumpets were delicious, by the way). The Jane Austen Centre also arrange guided walks, which are absolutely fantastic! If you ever go to Bath, you have to attend one of their walks. (The guilde, an elderly gentleman was fantastic and I took lots of notes, which I used later for my gay novella "Complicated Affairs.")

Gay street

Made me smile and reach for my camera! Old words like “gay” and “queer” had a rather different meaning in those days... The street is named after Mr Robert Gay, an infulence and rich landowner and surgeon of Bath and London.
(I remember reading Lord of the rings by JRR Tolkien when I was younger and how it made me rather confused about the authors note regarding the “There’s queer folk in Buckland”...)

Jane Austen house Bath

And here it is! Jane Austen acctually lived here on Gay Street no. 25. And I have been there! I have quite litteray walked on the exact same pavestones that she has... It is...It was... sureal!

Jane Austen pump room

Ah, the famous Pump room! Bath has the only hot spring in England and it has been used since the Romans more than 2000 years ago. If you have read “Northanger Abbey” or “Persuasion” you will know that the Pump room where were the nobles hang out to drink the healthy spa water and mingle.

Bath Roman baths

This is a photo from the inside of the old Roman baths and architecture. The water is tinted green because of the over 48 minerals that it contains, including sulphide and iron.

Bath pump room

The stone fountain from where the spring water is pumped in the pump room. The spa water taste rather awful, to be honest, but ever since I drank it I have not had a cold or suffered from any kind of malady...
(And for those of you who have read "Complicated Affairs": This is were Sebastian first sees Carl Whitmore.)

Lady T. L. Jennings handwriting

And this... Ladies and Gentlemen... are in fact my handwritten notebooks with all of my short stories arranged on a table in the Pump room.
(Yes, I did bring them just for this occation. And yes I tipped the waitress rather generously afterwords for putting up with me...)
The top notebook with the world map contains all of the Lust and Lace stories and the one underneath it to the right is my latest one, the Edgar Allen Poe notebook.

Would you like to see more of Lady T. L. Jennings vintage photos?

London - Bath - Victorian Fashion - Dartmoor

Venice - Haworth - In Jane Austen’s Footsteps