Sam Redlark

  image generated by Grok Professor Peter Mayne's essay, The Static Muse , ponders on those innocuous objects that become a source of inspiration for works of art and science. These are prosaic curiosities – some natural, some man-made – that one might walk past everyday without a second glance. It is precisely their unassuming nature – the fact they do not dominate the senses – that allows them to quietly impress themselves in our minds, where they stir the imagination. A pertinent example of Mayne's theory can be found in the English village of Steventon, birthplace of the writer, Jane Austen. The so-called ‘muse of Steventon’ is a short, broken-off sentence painted, in 4-inch-high Fishguard Latin* characters, on the interior plasterwork of the village's 12th century church. If you face in the direction of the altar, on a day when the light is good, you may be able to see this writing on the left hand wall of the chancel, just below the eves of the slanted roof. A few hun...