Backup Only

This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 10 September 2016

Alton Circular

t=2.10 Length: 20km
Toughness: 4/10
Transport: Take the 9:23 from London Waterloo, arriving in Alton at 10:39. Returns from Alton at xx:15 and xx:44.

From the description:

The quiet corner of Hampshire through which this walk passes seems like the kind of countryside in which nothing much ever happened. Yet in the late 18th and early 19th century it inspired two famous writers - Gilbert White and Jane Austen. After a section over wide upland fields to East Worldham, the walk first plunges into the delightful arcadia of woods, hangers and hidden pastures that surround Selborne, about which White wrote his famous Natural History. From there, it crosses wooded Selborne Common and gentle ridges of downland to Chawton, the home of Jane Austen for the last eight, and most productive years, of her life. On the way you can reflect on Austen's remark in Persuasion that two villages only three miles apart "will often include a total change of conversation, opinion and idea": though only a few miles apart, even today Chawton and Selborne seem like different worlds.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

12.5 miles.

JohnL said...

N=5, W=light_rain_most_of_the_day, Now the harvest is in and ploughing has stated and we found some footpaths obliterated replaced by clinging mud. (time to revert to winter boots). Having done the short version of this walk many times but never the full version I was surprised how different they are. The longer version is more remote, hillier and with some of the best Hampshire woodland hangers. Lunch at the Selbourne Arms was good with friendly, efficient service. Sadly we arrived at the tea room opposite Jane Austin's house just at 4:30 when it closes, but the pub next door was welcoming and provided teas and coffees. An enjoyable day out despite the rain.