Jane Austen’s heroines do a lot of walking. Elizabeth Bennet strides purposefully from Longbourn to Netherfield, muddying her petticoat along the way. Marianne Dashwood meets Willoughby while walking—and falling—in the rain. During extended walks, Emma Woodhouse visits the poor, Henry Tilney teaches Catherine Morland about the picturesque, and Anne Elliot overhears Captain Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove discussing an oh-so-symbolic hazelnut. Even poor, headache-prone Fanny Price walks back and forth to Mrs. Norris’ house in the hot sun.
So it seems entirely appropriate that the town of Alton’s fifth annual Autumn Walking Festival includes an Austen-themed walk among its offerings. As Janeites know, Alton, located in the British county of Hampshire, is the nearest neighbor to Austen’s last home, the village of Chawton.
Alton’s “Walk with Jane Austen,” scheduled for tomorrow from 10 am to 1 pm, is described as a “leisurely stroll” of just three miles roundtrip, starting in Alton and culminating at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton. A deputy curator will give a talk on walking in Austen’s time, and tea will be drunk in the museum’s café. Sounds delightful!
As, indeed, does the entire walking festival—could there be anything more British?--which runs every day this week and includes twenty themed walks ranging from one to fifteen miles in length.
One walk focuses on English Civil War sites (a battle was fought at Alton in December 1643); another follows paths trodden by the poet Edward Thomas, a local, who was killed in World War I. There’s a pub crawl, an exploration of old railway tracks, and a “Slow Meander” dedicated to foraging for wild-growing edibles (hazelnuts, anyone?). And if all that sounds too tame, the week wraps up on Sunday night with the Alton Ghost Walk, a spooky immersive theater experience that takes place in several sites around town.
They all sound preferable to my current situation: chained to the computer, gazing wistfully out on a perfect fall day. If you’re lucky enough to be walking in Alton this week, send along a report!
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