Chapter 18 explores Goethe’s influence on the development of the Weimar landscape, from the gardens of his own houses on the River Ilm and the Frauenplan, to the Ilm Park, grounds that belonged to Weimar’s ruler but were also made available for public leisure use. It also charts the reciprocal relationship between Goethe’s landscaping activity and his literary work, from the resonances of his Werther in his first garden on the Ilm, to those later pieces – especially Die Wahlverwandschaften (Elective Affinities) – which build on his own work with and study of gardens.

This chapter explores the relationship between Anne Lister and her home, Shibden Hall. Initially just a locally known, ’hidden gem’ of a council-funded visitor attraction with around fifteen thousand visitors a year, it is now internationally known as ’the Home of Anne Lister’, the lesbian icon and prolific diarist, traveller, mountaineer and businesswoman. Shibden Hall is now a ’literary house’, esteemed alongside the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, for example, with which a joint conference, ’Interpreting Anne Lister and the Brontës’, was recently held. This new status could barely have been conceived of five years ago when I started as Collections Manager for Calderdale Museum Service, which manages Shibden Hall. In this chapter I will examine how Shibden Hall and its landscape defined Anne’s remarkable life and the imprint she has left on them in return, which can still be experienced today; bringing people closer to the ’real’ Anne alongside the extensive diaries and now-iconic, top-hatted ’Gentleman Jack’ character. I will also consider the challenges faced by a small museum service in delivering expectations, the difficulties in representing historic stories within a museum setting and the complexities involved in constructing the historical past.