Second post of the day! Jane Austen walking trails

This is my second post of the day, but it is to make up for my lack of post yesterday. This is also because there was plenty of other things I have been up to as well as going to the Eliza Haywood Exhibition, which I talked about in my last post.

I have taken the weekend to explore Jane Austen’s favourite walks around the Chawton area. She most regularly walked between Chawton and the local town of Alton and there is actually a really well sign-posted trail and online map. I also have filmed my walk along the trail where I discuss the different sites where Jane would have visited friends and neighbours. Please do check that video out and subscribe to my channel as I will be posting plenty more about my trip here in Chawton.

The walk is mostly picturesque but it is slightly jarring to move from the sounds of the countryside to the rubble of traffic present in the town. Don’t let this put you off though as Jane might have experienced something similar as she moved from the quiet, bird song to the hustle and bustle of carriages and people. The plus side is that I will need to walk this trail regularly as Alton has all the main supermarkets so I will probably be walking in the footsteps of Austen once a week, if not more.

Today, I went on the much more ambitious walk from Chawton to Farringdon, which Jane apparently preferred. This walk is not signposted and at points there is no footpath. I used a map downloaded from the East Hampshire website that gave some points, linked to Jane’s letters, to watch out for and it seemed to have the clearest directions. However, this map I did find a little challenging to read at points and I did take a few wrong turns. All in all though, the walk was much more picturesque than Chawton-Alton and it was quite idyllic to walk through fields with very, heavily pregnant sheep. It took about 2 hours to do this circular walk and I have filmed the journey as well, which I plan to edit and post up in the near future.

 

The weather has been just perfect to do these walks and I wanted to do the trails before the inevitable rain sets in. Even when the typical British weather makes its ugly appearance there are plenty of museums and research to be getting on with!

P.S. If you are an Austen fan and you know of another walk or something else you would like me to vlog about, drop me a message and I will be sure to check it out!