Motorhome Travel: Literary Hampshire

Portsmouth in 1812. His birthplace at 393 Old Commercial Road opened as a museum in 1903. It has been restored and furnished in its original nineteenth century style and contains personal relics and first editions of his novels. The car park here is a little small for larger ’vans, so head for Flathouse Road for on-street parking and only a ten-minute walk to the house. Dickens was baptised nearby at St Mary’s Church in Fratton, which is one of Portsmouth’s largest and most beautiful churches.

Also in Portsmouth, you’ll discover a writer whose central character is 

more famous than the man who wrote the books. Arthur Conan Doyle was a doctor with a practice at Elm Grove in Southsea. Here, he created the character of the detective Sherlock Holmes for his first story, A Study In Scarlet in 1887. A visit to the City Museum is a must, as it has a whole exhibition room about the detective and his creator. There’s a fun challenge to solve as you work your way round the displays. The museum has a good-sized car park, which is free of charge.

As well as detective stories, Doyle also wrote historical novels that feature Hampshire, including Copper Beeches, which mentions Winchester and The White Company, set in the New Forest where Doyle had a second home. Doyle died at Crowborough in 1930, but was reburied in 1955 at Minstead Church in the New Forest, a village that he dearly loved.

Leaving the city, I headed up the A3 to Buriton. Edward Gibbon, the historian who wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire lived at the Manor House in his early years and is buried in the churchyard.

Then, just a few miles up the road is Steep, near Petersfield, linked with the poet Edward Thomas. Edward grew up in south London and moved to Steep with his wife in 1907. His wife was also a writer and her book As it Was – World without End describes life in the village and many of the people living there.

Several of Thomas’ poems refer to the landscape on the nearby Shoulder of Mutton Hill where there is now a memorial stone. He was killed in the First World War and there are two commemorative windows in Steep Church. There’s roadside parking outside the church.

I left the site the next morning, heading up the A32. However, you may wish to go west for a few miles first, where you’ll reach Botley, home to William Cobbett, who wrote about Hampshire in Rural Rides, and lived there from 1805-1817. Cobbett was a farmer and journalist and described Botley as ‘the most delightful village in the world. It has everything in a village that I love and none of the things that I hate’. A memorial stone in the market square commemorates him.

Heading north, however, you’ll pass through the village of Droxford, associated with The Compleat Angler, the classic work on angling by Izaac Walton, which he wrote whilst living with his future son-in-law, William Hawkins at Droxford. Walton is buried in Winchester cathedral and above his tomb is a memorial window with the legend ‘Study To Be Quiet’, one of his favourite quotes.

This piece is an extract from a longer article in June 2014 MMM magazine - to purchase your copy, click here.