Chiltern Hills

The Chiltern Hills are both a lived-in rural landscape and a recurring setting for private turning points in Edward Mayhew’s life. Their scattered cottages, wooded commons, chalk paths, and valleys place his childhood and solitary walks within reach of London’s expanding suburbs, while the hills’ quieter settings also frame his proposal to Florence Ponting.

Landscape and Settlements

Turville Heath, where Edward was born, is described as less than a hamlet: a thin scattering of cottages around woods and common land on a broad ridge above Turville. The setting belongs to the north-eastern end of the Chilterns, the London end, about thirty miles from the city. By the end of the 1930s that end of the hills had already been overtaken by urban sprawl and become a suburban landscape. Farther southwest, south of Beacon Hill, the land remained associated with open country, though the narrative also looks ahead to a motorway carrying traffic toward Birmingham through a cut in the chalk.

Edward’s Childhood and Walks

The hills provide the landscape of Edward’s early life. At sixteen, after learning of his mother’s accident, he often left the house for long walks that helped clear his mind. One route followed Holland Lane, a sunken chalk track with moss-covered banks, downhill to Turville; from there he walked through the Hambleden valley to the River Thames, crossed at Henley, and continued into the Berkshire Downs. The route links a local childhood setting to a wider landscape of valleys, river crossings, and open country, while giving physical form to Edward’s growing sense of separateness.

A Setting for Private Decisions

The Chiltern Hills also surround the small house of Edward’s parents, where a decisive moment in his relationship with Florence takes place. On a rainy Saturday afternoon in late March, the two are alone in the disorderly sitting room of the tiny house. After Florence briefly allows a gesture of intimacy, Edward asks her to marry him. The proposal makes the domestic interior, rather than the surrounding countryside, the immediate setting of the decision; nevertheless, its location in the hills connects this change in their relationship to the rural world that has shaped Edward’s life.