THIS is a most enjoyable short walk. Apart from one short climb, it is entirely level and almost all in woodland. There is much of interest to see along the way and it visits one of the Chilterns' best known pubs. Its unusual and intriguing name, its connection with the First World War poet Rupert Brooke and excellent food have all contributed to the fame of the Pink and Lily, conveniently passed three-quarters of the way round this route.

Fact file

Distance: 4 1/2 miles.

Map: OS Explorer 181 Chiltern Hills North.

Start: Great Hampden village hall and cricket pitch. Grid reference 846014

How to get there:

Take Hughenden Road (A4128) from High Wycombe. When this turns right to Great Missenden, continue ahead through Hughenden Valley for about a mile. Turn right along Warrendene Road for a quarter of a mile then left on Bryants Bottom Road. Follow this for 21/2 miles. Turn right at a crossroads, signed "Hampden 1/2 Great Missenden 4". Turn right at a T-junction then take the first road on the right, just before the Hampden Arms. Park near the village hall on the left.

Refreshments: The Pink and Lily (01494 488308) is very well positioned on this walk. Just when you feel in need of some refreshment, there it is! It serves excellent food, both snacks such as filled baguettes, and full meals. It is much altered since it was visited by Rupert Brooke as he walked in the Chilterns in 1913. He wrote some lines of doggerel about it and these are displayed in the Brooke Bar, kept much as the pub was in his day. It is decorated with photos of the poet and his grave, a corner of a foreign field forever England.

The walk

1. From the village hall return along the road to the junction then walk along a surfaced track ahead. When this bends left, take a signed footpath ahead, to the right of a thatched house. Ignore a path on the left after 75 yards and follow the path ahead, initially beside a wood and then across fields to Hampden church. Pass to the left of the church to emerge on a drive opposite Hampden House.

The Hampden family lived on this site from before the Norman Conquest until the 18th century. The present building dates mainly from the 16th century, though there are traces of earlier structures. John Hampden was one of Buckinghamshire's greatest sons. He was a leader of the revolt against tax demands by Charles I. His estate was assessed to pay 20 shillings Ship Money, ostensibly demanded to finance an attack on France. He refused and spent two years in gaol. This demand was one of the sparks that ignited the Civil War. Let all governments that are tempted to tax unfairly take heed! John Hampden was killed early in the conflict.

A gruesome footnote is that his body was exhumed from the churchyard in 1828 to settle and argument about whether he was killed by gunshot wounds or the explosion of his own pistol. The discovery of an arm wrapped in a separate cloth suggests the latter. His son, Richard, served Cromwell and was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Richard sold the family's London residence to George Downing, who built the famous street on the site.

2. Turn left. Continue ahead through a gate when the drive shortly ends and ignore a path over a stile on the right. Go through a second gate and ahead a few yards to a track. Turn right. When the track bends right through a gate, leave the track and continue ahead for 40 yards. The footpath and bridleway now diverge and it is much more pleasant to walk on the footpath just inside a wood. Eventually a wire fence bars the way ahead through the wood. Go left to rejoin the bridleway and continue in the same direction through woodland for about 300 yards to a cross path.

Look for a prominent bank in the woods on the right. This is part of Grim's Ditch. This system of banks and ditches is found erratically in many parts of southern England. It was certainly not built by an unknown Grim and the different parts may not even have much to do with each other. Some are Iron Age while other bits may be as late as the Saxon period. While it is shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, its structure suggests it was not a defensive fortification and was probably a boundary marker.

3. Turn left. Ignore a track on the right and press ahead along the right hand side of a field. At the end of the field, re-enter woodland and follow the path, which is reasonably clear and way-marked by white arrows. It emerges at a road junction.

4. Take the lane ahead, signed "Lacey Green 1" for about 200 yards.

5. Immediately after a house on the right, turn right and follow the way-marked path through the woods, ignoring all unsigned cross paths and side turns to eventually arrive at a stile and a cross path.

6. Turn left. At a track turn left again to a road. Turn right to the Pink and Lily.

I have heard two theories as to how the Pink and Lily acquired its distinctive name. The first, and more romantic, says that a Miss Lily, parlour maid at Hampden House, married Mr Pink, butler, and they opened a pub that took their names. The more prosaic explanation says what else would you call a pub at the junction of Pink Road and Lily Bottom Lane?

7. Immediately before the pub, turn left along Lily Bottom Lane for a good quarter of a mile.

8. Turn left along a track signed as a public bridleway, passing an attractive brick and flint house on the right. At the end of the house turn right along the first path on the right and walk just inside a wood to an obvious cross path with wooden railings.

9. Turn left. After 25 yards go through a gap in the fence on the left to walk parallel with the much muddier bridleway on the right. The Hampden Estate is to be congratulated for creating footpaths parallel with bridleways, which can be unpleasantly churned up by horses. Follow the way-marked path to a cross roads.

10. Turn right, signed "Hughenden 3 High Wycombe 5", for 45 yards. Turn left over a stile. The path forks almost immediately. Take the left branch ahead for 75 yards to a second fork. Bear left again and this shortly leads to a stile onto the cricket pitch. Go ahead back to the village hall.

Written by Jean Patefield

February 14, 2002 13:38