Time and Travel Distance in Pride and Prejudice

Have you read a Jane Austen variation and thought, “Why did they take so long to get from Longbourn to London?” Or maybe it was the opposite and you can’t believe it only took that long to get to Pemberley. I thought I’d post about realistic travel times for Pride and Prejudice locations with some reasonable guesses for where those made up places might be.

Easiest to figure out is Longbourn to London. Austen tells us exactly how far it is in chapter 27,

“It was a journey of only twenty-four miles, and they began it so early as to be in Gracechurch Street by noon.”

We know they don’t travel to London in a private coach because Mr. Bennet only sends his carriage part of the way to pick them up at an inn on the return trip.

It was the second week in May, in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch Street for the town of -- -- , in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr. Bennet's carriage was to meet them… Ch. 39)

But Sir William, Elizabeth, and Maria are the only ones in the carriage, so they traveled post, which would have taken a little longer than a private coach because you had to begin your trip by traveling to a town with the posting inn.

A post-chaise is a privately hired carriage serviced by a system of post-horses and postilions stationed at posting inns along the way. Ten miles is a reasonable distance for horses to travel before needing to change them. That trip probably took three to four hours, and a clue for exactly how long that journey took comes later.

We can guess the distance from London to Rosings. The return trip from Rosings in chapter 37 tells us the chaise arrives, and it takes 4 hours to get to Gracechurch Street. It makes sense if you look at a map and see where Westerham (where Mr. Collins says Hunsford is near) and Bromley are (where Lady Catherine tells them to give her name when they change horses). That distance is about 22 miles, and it fits with Elizabeth saying Charlotte Lucas is nearly 50 miles from her family and Darcy saying 50 miles of good road was an easy distance and only half a day’s journey.

(An easy distance for the guy with his own carriage and horses and can afford the inns, tips, tolls, etc.)

Harder to guess is Longbourn to Pemberley, because we don’t know where in Derbyshire Pemberley is or where Longbourn is. There’s no data to support Austen visiting Derbyshire or modeling Lambton and Pemberley on Bakewell and Chatsworth. It's just an apocryphal story. (In fact, that Jane Austen Society asked Bakewell and that hotel she supposedly stayed at to stop promoting this false narrative, and they agreed. But that’s another topic for another day.)

Let’s say that Pemberley is near Bakewell, since it’s near enough to Pemberley for Elizabeth to hear while in that town that Darcy’s not in the country. That’s 160 miles from Charles Street, Berkeley Square in London (where I have Darcy live—fancy, but not “I’m the wealthiest of all” fancy) to Bakewell. Darcy might travel in his private coach, but he’ll still have to change horses every 10-12 miles. They might be his own horses, sent ahead at the right stages, or they could be post horses like Lady Catherine uses to descend on Longbourn.

Here's what Austen tells us: In Chapter 47, when the Gardiners and Elizabeth are racing home, we learn, “They travelled as expeditiously as possible, and, sleeping one night on the road, reached Longbourn by dinner time the next day.”

They travelled from Pemberley to Longbourn in two long days.

Following that exhausting ordeal, they have to immediately deal with Mrs. Bennet’s drama.

So 160 miles from Pemberley to London, minus 24 because you would hit Longbourn first while traveling from the north. That’s about 70 miles a day at the Gardiner’s rapid pace, which makes sense if Darcy thinks 50 miles is little more than half a day’s journey. It's a rushed way to travel, but doable.

Maybe Darcy would take an easier paced two and half or three days when he’s bringing his family to visit Longbourn.

When Wickham tried to lure Georgiana Darcy from Ramsgate, he would have hired a post chaise (with her money) to make the 400-mile journey to Scotland. Assuming he wants to seal the deal fast and travel like the Gardiners did, they could get to from Ramsgate to Gretna Green in 6 days. The distance from Brighton with Lydia would have been about the same if he had actually meant to marry her.

I wonder if they would have had the money to travel post all the way?

Some of you might think, “If four horses can pull a carriage 10 miles per hour, that 400 mile journey should only take 40 hours.” Why so six days? Horses can’t keep that speed for many miles. You need to change them, or you have to let them rest at least a few hours. That takes time. Plus, you have to stop for tolls, and most travelers want to stop for meals and sleep. The postillions aren’t going to travel overnight. The speed on an open road isn’t the same as when you’re stuck behind a drover or travelling through a town.

One way to travel even faster is to buy a seat on the mail coach. Darcy and Elizabeth do this in order to beat Wickham and Georgiana from Ramsgate in A Most Natural Consequence. They know the runaway couple is in a post chaise and has a head start, but they ride the mail coach to beat t

The mail coach left London at 7:30pm and arrived in Carlisle on the Scottish border at 10 pm on the second day. But it’s not a pleasant way to travel, as Darcy and Elizabeth discover.

I still don’t think Mr. Bennet would have piled the kids in the carriage and driven the 260-some miles and spent 5 days to see Lydia in Newcastle, though.

For reference, here's what we covered:

Longbourn to London: 24 miles, 4 hours, post

London to Hunsford: 22 miles, 4 hours, post

London to Pemberley: 160 miles, 2.5-3 days post/private

Ramsgate to Gretna Green: 400 miles, 6 days, post

London to Carlisle: 300 miles, 27 hours, mail coach

Horse speeds: (you’re not likely to canter or gallop pulling a carriage)

Walk at 4 mph, and can do this for 6-8 hours

Trot at 8-12 mph and can do this for 2-3 hours, then walk for 1/2 hour

Canter at 10-17 mph but only for 15 mins

Gallop at 20-30 mph; but only for 2-4 minutes.

Travel was often boring, occasionally risky, and usually expensive, and once someone made a journey, they tended to stay for weeks or even months. But during this era, travel improved because of better roads and turnpike trusts, lighter and better designed coaches, a system of inns to rapidly change teams, and more efforts to stop highwaymen. Traveling for pleasure was now an option. And with the Napoleonic Wars preventing domestic travel, there was greater interested in exploring what England had to offer.