Cultural East Hampshire
Explore our unique blend of literary associations, historic homes and ancient history.
Local arts and crafts:
History and heritage:
Literature:
- The exquisite window in All Saints Church, Steep, commemorates local poet Edward Thomas.
- John Keats was inspired to write some of his finest verse in the chapel at Stansted House, Rowlands Castle.
- Flora Thompson delighted in the Weavers Down and the Holly Hills at Liphook.
- Selborne was home to the Reverend Gilbert White, whose "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" (1789) still attracts international recognition.
- Part of Jane Austen's prolific literary life was spent in her engaging home in Chawton.
Follow in the footsteps of some of these literary greats, details on our walking page.
W. H. Hudson wrote:-
"The South Downs , in their cultivated parts, are seen at their best in July and August, when the unreaped corn turns from green to red gold."
Flora Thompson wrote:-
"The overhanging hedgerows are composed of gnarled old bushes - hawthorn and witch hazel, and the rarer spindle-berry. This thick greenery is a sanctuary for birds. Flitting from bush to bush today was a bevy of long-tailed tits, eight of them, quaint tiny things in rose and grey"
William Cobbett wrote:-
"We came, all in a moment, at the very edge of the hanger! And never, in all my life, was I so surprised and so delighted! I pulled up my horse, and sat and looked; and it was like looking from the top of a castle down into the sea,"
Jane Austen wrote:-
"Our Chawton home - how much we find
Already in it, to our mind,
And how convinced that when complete,
It will all other places beat,
That ever have been made or mended,
With rooms concise or rooms distended."