Hampshire Jane Austen
Ramblings
BBC
4.5 • 768 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2017
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clare Balding walks in the footsteps of Jane Austen as she takes a path regularly taken by Jane, from her home in Chawton, now a museum, to Farringdon, to visit her friends. Clare is joined by husband and wife, Martyn and Sue Dell. Both work as volunteers at the museum, fulfilling a long held ambition of Sue's. She fell in love with Austen as a teenager upon first reading Pride and Prejudice and has fancied herself as Elizabeth Bennet ever since. Sue promised herself she would work at the museum once she retired from teaching. Martyn is a trustee and steward and talks about the importance of the house to visitors from all over the world, especially this year which marks the 200 th anniversary of Austen's death. They are also joined by the Museum Administrator, Gill Stanton.
The walk can be found on OS Explorer 133 Haslemere and Petersfield. Starting at the house in Chawton and walking to Farringdon, across the fields as Jane would have done and then back along the old disused railway, which she would have not.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. |
| 0:04.7 | Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon, and I make podcasts for the BBC. |
| 0:08.4 | I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. |
| 0:11.4 | But when I started commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts. |
| 0:15.4 | I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right mixture of sounds could take you into |
| 0:19.2 | a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to |
| 0:25.2 | give it a go myself, which, to cut a long story short, led to a BBC training scheme and a whole |
| 0:30.0 | new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories |
| 0:34.2 | that make you go wow, like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC |
| 0:38.1 | sounds. This is a BBC Radio 4 download. You're listening to me, Claire Balding with another |
| 0:44.5 | edition of ramblings. Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing field after field at a quick pace |
| 0:51.6 | jumping over styles and springing over puddles with impatient |
| 0:55.0 | activity and finding herself at last within view of the house with weary ankles dirty stockings and a face |
| 1:02.3 | glowing with the warmth of exercise only a person who really walks could write that and in jane austin's |
| 1:09.4 | pride and prejudice you can tell that she really walks. And |
| 1:12.6 | that's what we're going to be discussing today. We are nearly at the point at which we'll mark 200 |
| 1:17.5 | years since Britain's greatest novelist died. I'm going to say that without fear of correction, |
| 1:23.1 | certainly not from the three people that I'm with, standing outside Jane Austen's house in Chawton, |
| 1:27.3 | because Martin Del, Sue Dell and Jill Stanton are with me. All of you very much devoted |
| 1:33.8 | Jane Austen fans and work and help out here. Just looking back at that paragraph, weary ankles. |
| 1:41.5 | And Sue, I think that's an interesting adjective to use. Yes, when you think about it, |
| 1:47.1 | we're going out for a walk equipped with boots that support our ankles. But at that time, |
... |
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