Chawton to Farringdon, a literary walk

History

The Chawton to Farringdon walk is one of the Literary Walks in East Hampshire, a series of leaflets made for East Hampshire District Council to illustrate the work of six writers who were close observers of the natural and social environment of the district; this one follows Jane Austen. The leaflet was prepared by the late Anne Mallinson of the former Selborne Circle of Rural Writers and was revised in 2014. The walk starts at the car park beside Cassandra's Cup in Chawton and marks places that appear in Austen's letters: the churchyard of St Nicholas, where her mother and her sister Cassandra are buried; Chawton House, the Great House of Austen's time, which her brother Edward inherited with the Chawton estate; and, in Upper Farringdon, All Saints Church, whose rector from 1797 to 1857, John Benn, came from a family who were friends of the Austens. The route also follows part of the disused Meon Valley railway line, which ran between Alton and Fareham.