ARRIVALS

Don’t you enjoy coming home to Alton?

That wonderful moment when you turn off at Junction 5 and the pressure of motorway-madness falls away! Over the narrow canal bridge at North Warnborough, and into the familiar lanes, spotting a hot-air balloon drifting in the summer evening sky, slowing down for deer in the frosted dark, marvelling at the woodland carpets of bluebells in May, and finally seeing Our Town, a reassuring beacon on the hill in daylight, a scatter of twinkling lights at night.

Or sliding down the Shrave, keeping pace maybe with the steam train on the Watercress Line, then glancing down the valley towards Farringdon, a typical Hampshire landscape of low hills, clumps of woodland and farmed fields.  Gilbert White of Selborne knew that valley, and on this day he would have noted in his diary the trees in their russet and gold, scarfed by a soft autumnal mist.  Jane Austen too knew those lanes, and the turning to Chawton, her final home, is the last landmark before the Butts Green welcomes us to Alton itself.

Best of all is leaving Farnham on the train from Waterloo. After the anonymity of the City and the suburban gentilities of Surrey, the air freshens, cows and sheep graze the pastures and the infant River Wey meanders through the water-meadows beside the track. As we draw into Alton (the end-of-the-line, so there is no anxiety about missing our stop) we gather our bags, exchange a  word with a few friendly fellow-passengers, and rejoice that we are home at last – in Alton!

Judith Hepper