THIS walk follows the paths and lanes Jane Austen took to visit some of her closest friends at Ashe and Deane. We start from Steventon church and the distance is about five miles.

1. From the church, walk a few yards down the lane towards the village. Pass the first lane on your left, but turn left down the second lane which is marked with a footpath sign. Follow the lane past the north side of Steventon Manor. Just past the manor, over the field on your right, you see the rounded outline of a small copse. Our path runs to the right of these trees.

2. Leave the lane to cross a stile over the fence on your right and walk over the field towards the copse, keeping a fence on your left. Climb the stile by the copse and walk straight ahead down the side of the field to a minor road by a footpath sign. Turn right and walk down the road towards Steventon.

You pass on your left some charming old cottages which Jane knew, Elmtree Cottages. Just past these cottages turn left and follow the footpath sign along the edge of the field ahead, keeping the hedge on your right. Climb a flight of wooden steps to cross the railway. Go down the embankment and keep straight on along the edge of the field ahead. (You may have to pick your way at times through several narrow and rather overgrown windbreaks).

3. Keep straight on along the edge of the field. Another of those typical Steventon "hedgerows", a colourful ribbon of oak trees, hawthorns, wild roses and honeysuckle runs beside our path on the right. Beyond the hedge the fields roll down to a large plantation of pines. A cart track joins our way on the right. Keep straight on beside a wood fringed with young oaks.

4. Our path now bears left round the rails of Ashe Park. After about thirty yards look carefully for a stile on the right marked with a yellow arrow footpath sign. Turn right over the stile and bear left over the grass to cross another leading to the drive to Ashe Park. We turn left here. Jane would have turned right up the drive to visit her friends, the Holders. You can see the large red brick mansion, dating from the days of James I beyond the drive. She spent several quiet evenings here, like the one she describes in a letter to her sister Cassandra, written in November 1800. "We had a very pleasant day on Monday at Ashe; we sat down fourteen to dinner in the study, the dining room being not habitable from the storm's having blown down its chimney... there was whist and a casino table ...Rice and Lucy made love, Mat Robinson fell asleep, James and Mrs Augusta alternately read Dr Jenner's pamphlet on the cow pox, and I best-owed my company by turns on all."

5. Follow the drive as it runs through parkland dotted with oaks and beeches. After about a quarter of a mile the drive narrows between dark yew trees. A little further on, look for a stile on the left marked with a yellow arrow footpath sign. Turn left through the stile and walk straight over the field ahead to the footpath sign you can see by a stile which brings you to a minor road. Turn right, cross the B3400 and walk up the lane ahead to Ashe.

Close to the road on the left you see a beautifully proportioned Georgian house with a delicate fanlight over the door surmounted by a classical pediment. This is Ashe House, where one of Jane's closest friends, Mrs Lefroy, lived. It was here that Jane met an Irish nephew of Mrs Lefroy, Tom. She wrote: "He is a very gentle manlife, good looking, pleasant young man, I assure you." Jane writes she is expecting Tom to propose any time and she might accept him if he gives away his light-coloured coat! But her approach seems so light-hearted, it is difficult to believe this affair was very serious. Tom went on to make his fortune in Ireland, eventually becoming Lord Chief Justice, and, after a few inquiries, Jane found other dancing partners.

6. Just beyond Ashe House, which ceased to be a rectory in 1905, you come to Ashe Church, which was rebuilt in 1877. As you approach the building, the Lefroy graves are on the right. Opposite the church, take the signed footpath. Keep straight on, with a fence on the right, through a thin belt of woodland, to cross a stile. Walk ahead over a large field, aiming for the left-hand corner strip of woodland. As you near the woods look for a stile leading to a path through the trees, about a hundred yards from the left-hand corner. You leave the wood over another stile by a footpath sign shaded by an enormous craggy elm.

7. Ahead of you, across a lovely green, you will see Deane church. Make your way over the green, heading for the right-hand side of the church, to cross a stile into a lane by a church gate. Turn right and walk down the lane, past a magnificent eighteenth-century mansion with a formal garden approached by a flight of scalloped steps. This is Deane House, where Jane visited the Harwood family and attended their dances. Henry Fielding, a novelist she admired, although she could not quite forgive him for what she called his low standard of morals, is said to have depicted a member of the Harwood family as blustering Squire Weston in his Tom Jones.

8. Turn right from the entrance to Deane House and walk to the B3400 at Deane Gate. On the right is the site of the rectory. Jane's father was presented with the living of Deane as well as Steventon.

Cross the road at Deane Gate, past the old posting inn. If you would like to see a picture of Deane Gate posting inn as it was in Jane's time, the landlord will show you a hundred-year-old photograph on the wall of the bar. Walk down the lane ahead. Just before Cheesedown Farm turn left, following the bridleway sign.

9. Follow the bridleway uphill until you come to a small wood. Turn right here and walk along the edge of the field, with the wood on your right. Over the rolling green countryside on the left, you will see the part surrounding Hillsea College, Oakley Hall in Jane's time and the home of her friends, the Bramstons.

10. Two miles north of Oakley was Manydown Hall, the home of Jane's friends, Alethea, Elizabeth and Catherine Bigg. Their brother Harris, heir to Manydown, proposed to Jane in 1802. She accepted in the evening, but then changed her mind in the morning!

The way now goes through a gap in the fence, then through a wood along the top of the railway embankment. Leave the trees to walk downhill to a footpath sign by the minor road to Steventon. Turn left under the tunnel, to the village.

This walk is taken from In the Steps of Jane Austen by author Anne-Marie Edwards who lives in the New Forest. Published by Countryside Books, it costs £7.95.