Thursday, April 11, 2013

COLIN FIRTH: Pride and Prejudice: Walk in the footsteps of Miss Bennet and Mr Darcy (RADIO TIMES)

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's novel. Tantalise your televisual memory this summer with a walk through Lyme Park, where Miss Bennet was startled by a wet-look Mr Darcy during the BBC adaptation


Radio Times Staff
12:36 PM, 11 April 2013

When a wet-shirted Colin Firth strode into Jennifer Ehle’s life, an iconic TV moment was born. Lyme Hall played the part of Pemberley in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the lake into which Darcy dived (or a stuntman, in fact, due to the risk of Weil’s disease!) is much the same today. The park nestles in the foothills of the Peak District and this ramble takes in spectacular viewpoints, canalside heritage and, of course, that unforgettable pond.


START

Join the towpath at Higher Poynton, with the canal on your right. Just past the end of the moorings, the woods on your left hide the remains of the little-known East Cheshire Coalfield.

Pass under Bridge 13, then leave the towpath and circle back over the bridge, joining the rough lane skirting Middlecale Farm to reach, in 700m, a cross-path waymarked by the Peak and Northern Footpaths Society.

Turn left on the path through Ryles Wood to reach, beyond fields, the lodge house at the edge of Lyme’s Estate. Keep ahead along the rough track through a high gate to the main driveway.

Turn right, and in 220m drift left on to a stony track that eases up the hillside towards the ridge-top and The Cage, an elegant hunting lodge. Clear days offer extensive views across this corner of Cheshire and the nearer moors of the Peak District National Park.



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