Gothic City: Bath & the Gothic Imagination

Sophia Lee was the sister of Harriet Lee, both of whom ran a Gothic writing school at the Belvedere in Bath in the Eighteenth Century. They wrote plays, novels and in Sophia’s case, narrative verse. They had correspondance with Byron.

The Hermit’s Tale is a Gothic romance told with verve and descriptive passion. It is a true discovery and deserves to be celebrated:

Like a rich group of yellow sheaves

In ringlets wild, her hair

Play’d on her breast — so Autumn leaves

Hang on the lily fair.

It tells of the love of Edmund for the fair Evelinda. Duncan McGibbon will read the poem and place it the context of other writers in the Gothic City of Bath.

Duncan McGibbon is a published poet and co-convenor of the BRLSI Poetry group.