Joana Starnes

Whenever I go to the Lake District, I can’t help wondering what Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle would have seen if they carried on with their original plan, instead of shortening the trip and going no further north than Derbyshire.

Of course, it doesn’t bear thinking that Elizabeth should have missed that fateful chance encounter at Pemberley – but what if she had? What if she went to Lake Windermere instead, or Winander Mere, as the Georgians knew it? She might have sailed on the lake as well, although in a much smaller craft than the two modern-day steamers that are still ferrying passengers from one end of Windermere to the other, as they have done for the past 80 years.

Of the many beautiful houses on the shoreline, Elizabeth would have recognised a few – Storrs Hall for instance, which had welcomed many of the great and the good in its heyday, such as William Wordsworth, who had once recited his ode to daffodils in the Hall’s drawing room, and also Robert Southey (Cumbria’s first Poet Laureate), George Canning (stateman who held various senior cabinet positions during Jane Austen’s lifetime: Paymaster of the Forces, Treasurer of the Navy, British Ambassador, Foreign Secretary) and Beatrix Potter.

Miss Elizabeth Bennet would have known nothing of the author of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ (Beatrix Potter was born almost half a century later) but if she sailed past Storrs Hall, she would have recognised the Temple of Heroes, built to honour four of the most notable naval names of the Napoleonic wars: Admirals Nelson, Duncan, Howe and St. Vincent, whom the then owner of the house greatly admired.

Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle might have sailed all the way to Ambleside, and then continued to Grasmere, where William Wordsworth lived at Dove Cottage with his sister Dorothy for nearly a decade. Then the intrepid explorers might have braved the long journey to Keswick, to be rewarded with astounding views.

Astounding views would have been their reward, regardless of which part of the Lake District they would have chosen to explore. But now let me share one that simply took my breath away!

My family and I were driving along a steep and narrow road, and when we reached what seemed to be the highest point I turned around, and saw this:

A few hundred yards ahead of us, there was a low, long stone building that seemed to have been there for a very long time.

Often shrouded in mist and battered by fierce winds, Kirkstone Pass Inn had stood there for hundreds of years, providing a warm welcome to weary travellers.

I’d like to think that if Mr. Gardiner’s business had allowed him to take his wife and niece on a tour of the Lakes, then Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy might have met in such a remote place instead. A place where he would go seeking a respite from heartache, from duties and from Caroline Bingley, in a bleak wild landscape mirroring his bleak thoughts – only to discover that he was not the only guest at the inn.

This is why we love variations – the possibilities are endless. Steep slopes, runaway horses, broken carriage wheels or inclement weather that keep our favourite characters marooned there, with no chance of receiving bad news in letters from Jane, no Lydia and no horrid Wickham to wrench them apart.

We can’t have enough of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, and that’s a fact. We love the romance, the angst, the roller-coaster drama. But, for me at least, the greatest attraction comes from the certainty that all will be well. Obstacles will be overcome. They will be together. A guiding red thread takes them from heartache to happiness. And, no matter how badly the story starts or indeed how much worse it gets along the way, our favourite couple will have their ‘happily-ever-after’ and all is well with the world. I guess this goes to show we’re never too old for fairy-tales.

Have a lovely summer, whatever you do, and I hope you enjoyed this trip to the Lakes.