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The Jane Austen Series: Sense & Sensibility LbNA #30393

Owner:Clueless
Plant date:Apr 21, 2007
Location:
City:???
County:Bucks
State:Pennsylvania
Boxes:2
Found by: ???
Last found:Jan 18, 2012
Status:FFFF
Last edited:Apr 21, 2007
This hike is about four miles round trip. It’s got some nice ups and downs, and is on rocky trails, so please choose proper footwear. Requires navigating around (over/under) downed trees. This park totally rocks and has awesome scenery. Pay attention to blazes, they could use some touching up.

Thanks to Skip for helping me plant. For background on this series see the letterbox entitled “The Jane Austen Series: Jane Austen”.

With apologies to Jane, now on to the clues…

“And how far shall we walk today?” asked Marianne, making it a point to be pleasant. “Shall we examine all 612 acres of kind host’s land?”

Elinor and Marianne were staying with Mrs. Cafferty, an older woman of noisy cheerfulness. She treated them with all possible kindness, solicitous on every occasion for their ease and enjoyment. Two days of heavy rain had confined them all to the manor house, and the young ladies were eager to taste the fresh air at the first break that permitted it.

“I do fear it may rain again soon,” said Elinor, “so let us not go too far.”

“No, Elinor, I declare it will not rain.”

“You always say that, and then it always does.”

They began on the main path, heading down where, as Marianne put it, “we can run free with the does.” Though Elinor, practical, prudent, and, above all, sensible, knew propriety would draw the line at that, nor, just as likely, would the does.

They walked down the hill, past a sign indicating a trail with a yellow arrow. Elinor glanced a quizzical eye at Marianne, but no, she had her own plan. Marianne was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. No, she would lead with boundless enthusiasm, so down the hill they went.

Here the path turned left, and Marianne indicated that this trail on the right was the one she sought. They gaily ascended the hill, stepping carefully in their satin boots. At the T, they turned left, Marianne pointing out the white square/red dot markings they would follow. They walked along the trail, Marianne all enthusiasm. “Is there a felicity in the world superior to this?” she rejoiced, throwing her face full into the high wind. “Come, Elinor, what say you?”

Elinor could not quite match her zeal. “These woods are exceedingly pleasant, though you must not enquire too far. Remember, I have no knowledge in the picturesque, and I shall offend you by my ignorance and want of taste if we come to particulars.”

They came to a V, where they stayed to the right on the same trail, proceeding up a ridge. As they walked along Elinor continued, “I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold, surfaces strange and uncouth, which ought to be irregular and rugged, and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere.”

Marianne laughed at such a picture of herself, though she could not deny the accuracy of Elinor’s sentiments.

The wind was picking up, and threatening clouds overtaking patches of clear sky. Marianne seemed to draw energy from it, but Elinor began to feel some alarm. She was not as strong a walker as Marianne, and was worried that distance and weather would conspire against them.

They passed through a rock wall, and Elinor stopped to express her concern. “Marianne, I think we should turn back. We have gone too far, and the weather bodes ill. I begin to feel some tiredness in my legs.”

“Alas,” said Marianne, “I feel no such concerns. If you do not wish to carry on, you may stay here. Let me help you to this tree. There is a break in the wall here, you can lean against the tree to rest, and study the design flaw in the wall. Sit just here and have a look around you.” And with that, she dashed off down the trail, Elinor’s protests floating behind her.

Marianne was in raptures over every thing she saw; each tree, each rock, each leaf brought her joy. Though she had originally intended to walk far along the red dotted trail, as she moved down hill she saw an unmarked trail come in sharply from the left. It seemed to her that this trail would descend below the ridge, affording entirely different views. She could not resist.

She was quickly rewarded! The trail descended and she was shortly enjoying the views of the cliffs looking up from below. She soon passed a large boulder sitting just on the trail on her left, and then again another a short ways down the trail.

She examined some of the many loose rocks laying around until she found one in particular that struck her fancy, which she decided that she would bring home with her as an accent to her garden.

Suddenly, the clouds united overhead, and a rain set full in her face. Chagrined and surprised, one consolation remained, to which the exigence of the moment gave more than the usual propriety: running and skipping with abandon towards home. She was off!

Almost immediately she could see ahead a tangle of large trees blocking the path, and as she contemplated how she would pass them with her modesty in tact, a false step brought her suddenly to the ground. A gentleman carrying a gun, with two pointers playing round him, was passing nearby when her accident happened. He put down his gun and ran to her assistance.

She had raised herself from the ground, but her foot had been twisted in the fall, and she was scarcely able to stand. She leaned upon a squarish boulder just off the trail, much smaller in size than the others previous had been. The gentleman introduced himself as Willoughby, and assisted her onto the boulder, which he declared to be a comfortable seat. After ascertaining the extent of her injury, he declared her unfit to walk and offered his services. Noting the rock she was holding, he told her she must leave it behind.

“Oh, but it has such a pretty turn of shape about it, I should hate to lose it!”

“We will tuck it safely at this nook at the back of this boulder. See this flat rock here next to the tree? I have nestled it under here, where it will be safe from someone else noticing it and claiming it as their own. When you are well, we shall return to claim it.”

With that, perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, he took her up in his arms without farther delay, and carried her down the trail. It was not easy walking, as they had to navigate over, under and around several downed trees. Yet he was gentle and graceful, not to mention, uncommonly handsome.

Eventually he carried her oh-so-carefully across a rocky stream bed, then proceeded up the trail the right. He continued straight back on to the red dotted trail Marianne’s journey began on, though he followed the trail fully back to it’s start – into a field, making a right past an outhouse.

Elinor, long since returned home, had been anxiously watching at the window for Marianne’s return. Needless to say, her eyes were wide with amazement at the sight before her. Escorting them inside, Elinor thanked Willoughby again and again, inviting him to be seated. He declined, on account of being wet through, but requested the honor of calling the next day to enquire after the patient. This, of course, was readily granted, and he departed.