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Ramblings

Factual: Travel

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Clare Balding joins notable and interesting people for a walk through the countryside

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Ramblings: Series 26

Clare Balding

Elizabeth Hutchings

Lucy Lunt

Ramblings: Series 26: Episode 5: Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight

Episode 5

Episode 5: Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight

Series 26

Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight

BBC Radio 4 - Ramblings, Series 26, Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight

Clare Balding revisits Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight to meet Elizabeth Hutchings.

After 13 years, Clare Balding revisits Tennyson Down, on the Isle of Wight, with Elizabeth Hutchings, whose late husband Richard founded the Tennyson Society.

In this series of Ramblings, Clare Balding revisits some of her favourite walks and walkers. After thirteen years she returns to the Isle of Wight to meet Elizabeth Hutchings who introduced her to the Tennyson Trail.

Elizabeth's late husband, Richard, was the founder of the Farringford Tennyson Society, so it was only fitting that he should have a bench, placed in his memory, under the poet's monument on top of the Down. But when Clare last visited this National Trust site, it was their policy not to have memorial plaques on benches, a disappointment to Elizabeth. But thanks to the likes of Head Ranger Robin Lang, they have reversed their position and now the bench has an inscription, to Richard, carved into the wood.

Although now in her mid eighties and unable to make the steep climb onto the Down, with the help of Robin's four by four, Elizabeth and Clare once again visit the monument , the Down and Richard's seat and discuss the role walking has played in Elizabeth's long and eventful life.

Producer: Lucy Lunt.

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Episode 5: Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight

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