This was to be the shortest of AW’s days on his 1938 journey. This was so that he would ‘come to it (the Wall) in early morning, not at dusk when I was tired‘. His sense of anticipation had been increasing the nearer he got to his objective. During his leisurely walk, at ‘hymn speed‘, he lingered long in the ‘gorgeous crimson-purple‘ heather on Blanchland moor before passing an area of recent afforestation.

The firs then were ‘only a few feet high‘ but in 2008, as up to this point both routes are the same, are fully mature. He continued on the minor road to Hexham passing ladies gathering blackberries and came to Linnets Bridge. Here he saw ‘the house of my dreams‘ with ‘rock gardens that come down in terraces‘.

Arriving at last in Hexham he ‘wandered about aimlessly‘ for a while exploring the older part of the town before having a meal and finding bed and breakfast adjacent to the Abbey.