Walking with Jane Austen
North Waltham is “a village and civil parish in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire, England.” With one school, one store, one church and two pubs, it is a very ordinary and properly-proportioned English town (except that neither of the pubs show live soccer matches!)
What distinguishes North Waltham is that one of those pubs is the old coach house where young Jane Austen would sit and wait for the post to arrive. A twenty-minute walk in the other direction takes us to the townless town of Stapleton where she was born. And our morning walk through several farmers’ fields (on public paths, with several farm gates to navigate) leads to her childhood church.
We are living in “Church Cottage” for ten days, caring for two large and extremely cuddly dogs (and one reclusive cat) who leave almost enough couch space for us in front of the wood-burning fire - our latest Trusted Housesitters gig. A quick stroll through town takes us up Cuckoo Close, past Folly Farm and along to Elizabethan Rise.
Neighbours greet us with a genuine smile and interactive conversation, not just a token “G’morning” grunt. They may or may not know the homeowners’ names (with only 10 years here they’re still the new kids on the block), but they all know Church Cottage, and a surprising number know these dogs’ mother “Olive” - and Olive’s human mother who died last year - truly a community where connection and lineage extends to buildings and animals as well as centuries-old families.
Our normal twice-daily walks are through the thick muddy fields of Jane Austen’s youth. Dogs strain the lead (and once escape) yearning for the wild pheasants, rabbits, and ducks that Austenite nobility used to hunt for sport. Beside the church is the type of grand old manor upon which she styled the peaceful gardens and elegant sitting rooms of Kellynch Hall, Saltram House and Pemberley Estate. Just like visiting the movie locations in Morocco and Italy brought those films to life, I can now read Jane Austen period pieces and feel the muddy path under my Wellies, taste the bracing breeze across the fields, and share the awe of Fanny Brice arriving at the manicured tree-lined gated entrance to Mansfield Park.
As a quick aside, not only does staying ten days allow us to slowly absorb a small hamlet’s energy and history, it also saves money. Housing is free (in exchange for thoroughly enjoying the dogs), $150 covers all our groceries for ten days, and since the pubs don’t show soccer there’s no bar tab or other entertainment costs. When we leave, in a single overnight in cruiseship-crazed Southampton we ring up 13 credit card purchases totalling $375.37 (including the fabulous Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” in an ultra-modern cinema, and a great meal in the 700-year-old “Wool House” that has been a wool storehouse, POW jail, aviation workshop, and Titanic memorial before becoming a brewpub.)
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thank you !!! such a pleasant morning read. grateful, we are so tired and embarassed for our new goverment takeover, nice break.