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More about this trip-
As a writer, Austen uses Regency culture’s societal structures as a framework for the creation of her characters. These markers define her characters, but also can obscure the specificity of their individual selves, weaknesses, and desires. Pilgrims will spend time contemplating the relationship between status and self, asking questions like: how do we use the social structures embedded in our culture to shape our identities? How does status cloud or clarify our perceptions of our peers? What values are we embodying when we accept or reject the signals from these structures? We will engage with these questions as Lizzie Bennet does, walking through the countryside with our hems, “six inches deep in the mud.”
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We will walk up to 8 miles each day. The weather in the UK is notoriously variant; however, we will walk come rain or shine, and we recommend that pilgrims prepare for the possibility of precipitation and muddy boots. We won’t rush our hikes, but we expect to be tired at the end of each day.
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Our home base throughout will be the Rutland Arms Hotel, Eatery, and Coffee House, a perfect accommodation in the area of Bakewell that is just a ten minute drive from Chatsworth House, a historic site in Derbyshire that was used for a filming location in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
The full tuition of the trip is as follows:
$5,250 for Private Room - sold out - register for private to be on the waitlist or select shared room!
$4,750 for Shared Room
We will meet near the Chesterfield Train Station after lunch on September 22nd and end programming at Chesterfield Station before lunch on September 26th. Specific meeting time and location will be privately offered to pilgrims upon registration and payment.
Each pilgrim is responsible for handling their own travel expenses and arrangements prior to our meeting on September 22nd and after we say goodbye on September 26th.
Scholarships
We occasionally offer partial scholarships for pilgrimages. If you are interested, please fill out our form here.
Trip Faculty
Sarah Stewart Holland
Faculty Leader (She/Her)
Sarah is the co-host of the award-winning podcast Pantsuit Politics, which prioritizes curiosity over the conflict that often drives political conversations. Beyond that, she’s a lover of Jane Austen, international travel, and themed parties.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times and The Atlantic, and her show was recognized as “Podcast of the Month” by Good Morning America in 2022. She also co-authored of Now What? How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything) (2022) and I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversation (2019) with her co-host, Beth Silvers.
Sarah will serve as lead faculty on this trip.
Elizabeth Oldfield
Chaplain (She/Her)
Elizabeth is the host of The Sacred podcast and the author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, which has been featured on the goop podcast and the Ezra Klein show and praised by Krista Tippett. She also writes a substack at morefullyalive.substack.com and works as a coach for people exploring questions of meaning, values, purpose and vocation.
Elizabeth will serve as Chaplain for this trip.
Liz Slade
Logistics Coordinator (She/Her)
Liz worked with Vanessa to develop the first ever Common Ground pilgrimage back in 2018, hardly believing her luck that reading, walking, and getting nerdy about historic locations could count as 'work'. After the success of that first pilgrimage, she worked with Vanessa and the team on Little Women, Jane Eyre and the first Pride & Prejudice pilgrimage in 2019. Since then she has been working as Chief Officer of the UK's Unitarian movement, helping create welcoming community for those seeking a spiritual home. She's also part of the Hard Art collective of leaders, artists, and activists convening as a creative response to the climate crisis. She lives in the UK, recently moving to the countryside after 20 years of London life, so she could spend more time with hills and trees.
Liz will serve as logistics coordinator for the trip.
“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but no one with such justice.”
— Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice