Jane Austen gave us five Bennet sisters, but most readers, and most screen adaptations, naturally focus on Elizabeth and Jane. Lydia brings the drama, Kitty tends to follow along, and Mary is usually left on the edge of things, remembered for her awkwardness, her improving remarks, and her habit of trying a little too hard. That is exactly what makes the television adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s novel The Other Bennet Sister such an interesting idea. Hadlow’s novel, and now the television adaptation, build on that and imagine what might happen if Mary were allowed to grow beyond the rather narrow role Austen gave her in the original.
An important part of that journey is the role played by poetry, especially the poetry of the Romantic poet, William Wordsworth. In Austen’s novel, Mary is drawn to conduct books and moral essays. She likes instruction, and she likes the idea of being thoughtful and accomplished. In The Other Bennet Sister, she encounters something quite different. Her various suitors introduce her to Wordsworth’s poetry. It is about landscape, memory, observation and feeling. Through poems recited in the episodes such as ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’, ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’, and ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, better known as ‘Daffodils’, Mary encounters a kind of writing very different from the improving literature she is used to. That helps to open up her world and gives her a different way of understanding herself.
One particularly apt reference is Wordworth’s She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways. It is easy to see why this poem fits Mary Bennet so well. Wordsworth writes about a quiet, overlooked young woman, someone who is not much noticed by the world around her. That makes it a very apt choice for Mary, who has always stood in the shadow of her sisters. The poem gives weight and dignity to a character who might otherwise be passed over, and that is very much what The Other Bennet Sister does with Mary.
Wordsworth himself is an important figure to bring into the story. Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he helped change the direction of English poetry through the publication of Lyrical Ballads. Their work moved away from formal, heavily polished verse towards something more personal and closer to ordinary life. Wordsworth in particular wrote about places, people and emotions in a way that made landscape central to poetry. That matters here because Mary’s development in the series is tied not just to books and ideas, but to place.
William Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage in Grasmere between Dec 1799 – May 1808. Copyright, Jeff Appleyard.
That is where the Lake District comes in. Wordsworth’s name is so closely linked with the Lakes that it is hard to separate the poet from the landscape. Grasmere, Rydal and the surrounding countryside were not simply home to him; they were at the heart of his writing. The fells, lakes and valleys gave him the settings, the atmosphere and in many cases the inspiration for some of his best-known poems. His sister Dorothy Wordsworth was just as important to that world. Her journals are full of keen observation and detail, and anyone wanting to understand Wordsworth properly should really think of William and Dorothy together. Visiting places connected with them, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Rydal Mount and St Oswald’s churchyard, brings the poetry alive in a way that reading alone never quite can. The surrounding landscapes they knew so well remain central to that experience.
The BBC drama ‘The Other Bennet Sister’ was partially filmed at Dyffryn House and Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Copyright Jill Dunford.
There is a further twist, of course, in that although the story brings Mary Bennet to the Lake District, the series was filmed in Wales. That is no bad thing. Wales has the landscapes, the historic settings and the atmosphere that period drama needs, and it has long been used to stand in for other parts of Britain on screen. For viewers and visitors alike, that creates two linked but slightly different journeys. There is the world of the television series, with its Welsh filming locations, and there is the real literary landscape associated with William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the Lake District.
That opens up a particularly appealing journey for anyone who enjoys literature, period drama and travel. You can visit the Welsh locations used for The Other Bennet Sister and see how Mary’s story was brought to the screen, or take a journey to the Lake District to explore the places that shaped Wordsworth’s poetry and Dorothy’s journals. One trip gives you the atmosphere and settings of the series; the other gives you the real landscapes behind the poetry and the ideas.
This is exactly the sort of story that benefits from good guiding. A Welsh Blue Badge Guide can do far more than simply point out a filming location. A good guide can explain why a particular setting was chosen, how it works on screen, and how it helps create the mood and world of the story. In the Lake District, exploring the places associated with William and Dorothy Wordsworth adds another dimension altogether. Walking through Grasmere, seeing Dove Cottage, visiting Rydal, or standing in the landscapes that inspired poems such as Daffodils makes the connection between literature and place much clearer. It turns the journey into more than sightseeing; it becomes a way of seeing how landscape, writing and imagination all come together.
Mary may once have been the most overlooked of the Bennet sisters, but The Other Bennet Sister suggests she may in fact be the one with the most unexpected story to tell. Better still, it is a story that can be followed not just on the page or on screen, but on the ground as well, in the Welsh landscapes used for the series, and in the Lake District that inspired William and Dorothy Wordsworth alike.
Featured image: Lake Windermere. Copyright Jeff Appleyard.
About the Authors
Jeff Appleyard, MITG, is a Cumbria Blue Badge Tourist Guide and Licensed Driver-Guide. Jeff is a volunteer guide at Cartmel Priory and Flookburgh Church, and serves on the committee of his local history society. He is a member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, the Cumbria Industrial History Society, and the Cumbria Vernacular Buildings Group. He is also a volunteer Cross Bay Marshal, assisting the King’s Guide to the Sands across Morecambe Bay, and has hiked extensively throughout the Lake District. As a member of the Wainwright Society, he has completed all 214 of Alfred Wainwright’s Lakeland fells. Meet Jeff here
Jill Durnford MITG, is a Cumbria, Wales and South West Blue Badge Tourist Guide. Jill loves showing visitors around these exceptional locations. They have a lot in common – farming, hills, lakes, gardens, literary connections and stunning coasts. Jill is also a qualified guide for Windsor Castle, the neighbouring town of Eton and the gorgeous city of Wells. Meet Jill here
The Importance of Teachers
From Barrow to the White House
Go East!
The Dukes of Devonshire Story