Longshaw Estate

Bracken fern and mushrooms were my main recollection from Longshaw - how the lovely views didn’t stand out more in my mind I don’t know. A few precious quiet hours were ours there, a trip through the Peak District between visits to family on one side and friends on the other. We had a long ramble on a lovely October day - mild, soft and misty in the distance.

Now, does this count as ‘near’ or as ‘far’? It’s about 6.5 hours’ drive away for us…..so in ordinary circumstances in the modern world perhaps we would say relatively near. But in a pandemic lockdown it becomes very far away indeed.

It may remind the Austen reader of Elizabeth Bennett’s disappointment at not being able to reach the Lake District. Her uncle’s business prevents him setting out when planned and leaves them only a month to travel in. Unable to ‘go so far and see so much as they had proposed, or at least to see it with the leisure and comfort they had built on, they were obliged to give up the Lakes, and substitute a more contracted tour…..no farther northward than Derbyshire.’ The new plan has about three weeks in Derbyshire, so presumably the rest of the month is planned for the journey travelling and sightseeing in easy stages from London and back. We know they stop overnight at Longbourn in Hertfordshire and set off the next day with Lizzy in tow, on their way to Derbyshire taking in ‘Oxford, Blenheim, Warwick, Kenilworth, Birmingham, etc.’ Their emergency return to Longbourn involves travelling much more ‘expeditiously’, with only one overnight stop.

Despite the axing of the Lake District from the itinerary, the rugged beauty of Derbyshire & the Peaks must have been a wonderful change of scenery for a girl from Hertfordshire.

I dug out my copy of Pride & Prejudice to look for Lizzy’s remarks on the Derbyshire sights, and it fell open straight into a conversation between Lizzy and Mr Darcy on the exact question raised earlier - what counts as near?

For the wealthy male Darcy, Mrs Collins’ new home in Kent is ‘within so easy a distance of her own family and friends.’

Elizabeth hotly contests this. ‘An easy distance do you call it? It is nearly fifty miles.’ ‘And what is fifty miles of good road? Little more than half a day’s journey. Yes, I call it a very easy distance.’

‘I should never have considered the distance as one of the advantages of the match’ cried Elizabeth. ‘I should never have said Mrs. Collins was settled near her family.’

Mr Darcy sneers a little. ‘It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far.'

Lizzy defends herself against the charge of colloquialism and points out not everyone shares his circumstances. ‘I do not mean to say that a woman may not be settled too near her family. The far and the near must be relative, and depend on many varying circumstances. Where there is fortune to make the expense of travelling unimportant, distance becomes no evil. But that is not the case here. Mr and Mrs Collins have a comfortable income, but not such a one as will allow of frequent journeys; and I am persuaded my friend would not call herself near her family under less than half the present distance.’

So there we have it. Near and far are relative terms, determined by the circumstances. In the pre-motorcar or train era, Kent to Derbyshire was a bit epic, a leisure option when you had a month to spare to make the journey worthwhile (and no doubt the kind of funds available only to the relatively wealthy). During the pandemic lockdowns, they were impossibly far apart. At the moment, now that we can travel, Derbyshire again seems relatively near.