How to Take a Literary Tour of Britain

At 11, this writer inhaled “Jane Eyre." She walked the moors with the good but poor, wretched and homely hero who eventually won the heart of the dashing, wealthy, good but married, Rochester. After reading the Bronte women, the writer branched into other English authors--Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and later turned to Henry James, E.M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and others. This writer’s life long love affair with books and writing began with these authors, whose homes and workplaces and communities can still be seen. Read on to learn how to take a literary tour of Britain.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Map of British
• Marker
• Information on the authors you're interested in
• Recommendation--the "Blue Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland"

Planning Your Trip

1. 
   Dove Cottage, home of William Wordsworth, Lake Country, England

   List the authors you are interested in. Find out where they lived. Get a map of Britain and put dots or markers on the places you would like to visit. Decide whether you want to take a literary tour (a number are available) or if you would like to go on your own.

2. 
   Lake Country View, England

   If you are going on your own, decide how much time you will take, how you will get from place to place and what the best route is for you. If you have a choice, go in May or September when you can expect to have reasonable weather and avoid the summer crowds. Incidentally, if you can go no further than London, there’s much to be seen there.

3. 
   Sign outside the home of Virginia Woolf

   Notice when particular sites are open. There’s nothing more upsetting than driving for hours to see something that is closed. Research is important. Time spent in checking sites out online and through the Blue Guide will be important. Allow yourself sufficient time to walk to Hardy’s Cottage, explore Haworth and walk the moors where the Bronte sisters lived. Let the atmosphere seep inside you.

Examples of Places to Visit

4. 
   Street view in Haworth

   Visit Haworth the home and of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte. Their most famous works are “Jane Eyre” written by Charlotte and “Wuthering Heights” written by Emily. In the Northern part of England, Haworth is in a rugged, wild and foreboding. Walk across the moors, which even in May can be chilly and damp. Have a beer at the Black Bull. The Bronte home, which sets near the church and graveyard where Charlotte and Emily were buried, is open for visiting.

5. 
   Hill Top, one of Beatrix Potter's homes in the Lake Country, England

   Visit the Lake Country and learn about Beatrix Potter. Flowers are everywhere--rhododendrons in purple, white, pink, yellow and coral. Join a tour so you don’t have to drive the narrow, windy roads--to see and learn how much Beatrix Potter did for the country besides writing “Peter Rabbit.” She was instrumental in founding the National Trust. She donated, in all, 16 farms to the Trust, with certain stipulations such as no loud music, no “gramophones,” no swearing. Here also are the homes of poets Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, to whom the Bronte sisters wrote for advice.

6. 
   Writer's Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland

   Visit the Writer’s Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland. Featured in the museum are three writers: Sir Walter Scott, who had a debt of 117,000 pounds at one time and tried, unsuccessfully, to pay it back on his own; Robert Burns, who seems to have become involved with a number of women; Robert Louis Stevenson, who apparently wrote “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde” based on the life of an owner of a nearby pub.

7. 
   Sign outside Jane Austen Home, England

   By going south from London to Brighton, you can see several literary places quite easily. In Brighton, stay at Old Ship Hotel, where Charles Dickens slept in 1837 and 1841. The next day, a short drive takes you to the small village of Rodmell and Monk’s House--a second home to Leonard and Virginia Woolf beginning in 1919, ending for Virginia when, in 1941, she walked to the nearby Ouse River and drowned herself. Leonard lived there until 1969. Both house and garden are preserved now and the Woolf’s ashes are buried near a garden pond. Near Alton, stop at Chawton House, home of Jane Austen. Though the writer’s visit was literary, it could have equally been a garden visit, as it went through green countryside, past a profusion of flowers, both cultivated and wild. Austen’s writing desk and chair sets near a window. The door to the room purposely creaked so she could hide her writing if anyone came into the room. Even the servants didn’t know--throughout her life--that she wrote.

8. Driving west and south, you arrive in the Dorset area, of which Thomas Hardy wrote so vividly. He renamed each village. Dorchester became Casterbridge. Take the 10-minute walk through a forest heavily-laced with wild rhododendron and bluebells to Hardy’s cottage. Continue north towards the Cotswolds to Tewkesbury. Stay at a place mentioned by Dickens in “Pickwick Papers” this way: “At the Royal Hop Pole at Tewkesbury they stopped to dine; upon which occasion there was more ale, with some port besides; and here the case bottle was replenished for the fourth time. Under the influence to these combined stimulants Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Ben Allen fell asleep for thirty miles, while Bob and Mr. Weller sang duets in the Dickey.”

Tips & Warnings

• Read "Blue Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland."
• Read "Literary VIllages of London."