10 h 29 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a country lane reveal about a kingdom whose name outlives its rule?
In Wanderings in Wessex, Edric Holmes explores the southern country between the valleys of the Itchen and the Otter. Old towns, village life and open countryside sit close together here. The journey invites you to see a landscape not just as ground to cross, but as a place shaped by history.
Wessex begins as the kingdom of the West Saxons, yet its name carries a region's character and memories long afterward. Holmes belongs to the English tradition of walking and touring writers. His subject rewards a slower pace: country lanes, old bridges and church towers draw attention to what a hurried traveller might miss.
What you’ll discover
- A kingdom in the landscape Explore how the name Wessex holds together a region and its memories.
- Two rivers frame the journey Let the Itchen and the Otter mark the bounds of your exploration.
- The pleasure of going slowly Find room to notice hedgerows, old bridges and church towers along the way.
- History close to village life Discover a southern landscape where old towns and open country meet.
- Places that still invite exploration Picture cathedral towns, market squares and country paths that remain part of England's south.
Who will love it
This book will delight armchair travellers, country walkers, lovers of churches and castles, and readers of Thomas Hardy who want to stand where his fictional towns come from, or anyone who enjoys English history told through places.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Wessex is Alfred's realm, drawn by settlers
- Winchester is the ancient capital of England
- Hampshire's rivers and forest hide quiet treasures
- Dorset's harbour and Purbeck mix crime, castles and cliffs
- Dorchester and Hardy's country rest on deep history
- The west Dorset coast joins bays, stone and legend
- East Devon and the Somerset border run to the Otter
- Salisbury and Stonehenge crown the chalk heartland
- The road ends where Wessex began, at Winchester
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Wanderungen in Wessex
by Edric Holmes · 1922
A walker crosses Wessex from Winchester to the Otter, past ruined castles, village churches and Stonehenge.
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In short
Wanderings in Wessex is a guide to the old kingdom of Alfred, written by Edric Holmes in the years just after the Great War. It is part travel book, part history lesson and part church tour.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Wessex is Alfred's realm, drawn by settlers
Holmes opens by claiming that Wessex, the realm of Alfred, shaped the England that came after it. Of all the old divisions of the country, he calls it the most interesting and perhaps the most beautiful. Yet the word is slippery. Early Wessex was small, but by the end of the ninth century the kingdom held most of southern England, including Essex, Kent and the South Saxons.
In Alfred's youth, he explains, its borders roughly matched Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, with stretches of Somerset and east Devon. Its true heart was the fertile valley from the Solent to Winchester. Two related peoples settled there. The Jutes took the Isle of Wight and the nearby coast, while the West Saxons pushed inland and soon won the loyalty of those who had come first.
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What is Wanderings in Wessex about?
It is a guide to the old kingdom of Wessex, walking from Winchester to the Otter in Devon. Edric Holmes describes towns, churches, castles, battles and legends, using each place to tell part of the history of southern England.
Which area does Wessex cover in this book?
Holmes sets his boundary on the coast from the Meon, east of Southampton Water, to the mouth of the Otter. The northern edge is the chalk ridge from Inkpen Beacon to Hackpen Hill, taking in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and parts of Somerset, Devon and Berkshire.
When was Wanderings in Wessex written?
Holmes wrote it just after the Great War. He mentions wartime camps, memorials and events of the summer of 1921, and he describes railways, motor roads and restoration work as they stood in those years.
The author
Edric Holmes
1875–1949 · British topographical writer
Edric Holmes (1875–1949) was a British author who wrote non-fiction about places and landscapes. His books included Wanderings in Wessex, published in 1922. He wrote about southern England, including the region known as Wessex. He lived during the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries.
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