FRANCIS Kilvert wrote in his diary on November, 18, 1870: “I was at The Pant in Brilley and Mrs Powell was entertaining a sister-in- law from Huntington. There was a discussion about parishes and boundaries.

She said: ‘Last summer the Manor folk walked and beat the bounds. To feel for the boundary they pushed a stick through that window first removing as usual a pane of glass’.”

Positioning himself carefully, Kilvert further records: “I’m now sitting in Brilley (England and Herefordshire) feeling for the boundary notch in the chimney. ‘It’s further this way,’ said Mrs Powell. ‘And I suppose there have been some curious disputes about the boundary running through this house.’ Very odd indeed,” mused Kilvert as he recalled the extraordinary story which old Betty Williams of Crowther had told him.

It seems that a child had been born in the house and the utmost care was taken that the child should be born in England in the English corner of the cottage.

“‘Stand here, Betsey, in this corner,’ said the midwife. And the girl was delivered of the child standing.”

Linda Bishop wrote in her diary on November 18, 2012: ‘Beautiful morning, frost sparkling and shimmering cobwebs. Six miles and trying out new boots and rucksack.”

Later: “Back in the gym this morning. Not feeling too bad considering six miles turned into nine miles due to a pesky stile.”

On Tuesday, May 7, the indomitable Linda will be “beating the Brilley boundary”.

Between Brilley Mountain and Cusop Dingle, she will be walking the second leg of a 180-mile journey.

While Kilvert preferred walking on his own, Linda is inviting all-comers to join her on any of the 17 days of an epic perambulation.

It’s the first ever fundraising walk around the whole of the Herefordshire county boundary.

Linda’s journey really began in 2011 when she was referred to the day hospice at St Michael’s Hospice with recurring parotid tumours from which she had been suffering since her early 30s. With the considerable assistance of the hospice’s complementary therapies team and through her own steely determination, Linda is regaining fitness.

Her challenge is to raise £25,000 for the new complementary therapy suites as part of the hospice redevelopment by beating boundaries – and her own cancer.

She has already been sponsored by a personal trainer and, as her diary reveals, has been covering the hard miles in and out of the gym.

She points out that, “Everyone knows of the vital work the in-patient unit does at St Michael’s but I want this walk to raise awareness of the importance of the outpatient service and the excellent complementary therapies that have helped me so much.”

Kilvert was quite an authority on flowers and he would walk extreme distances to find what he was looking for. Children on the doorstep once “showed me,” he noted in May 1871, “what I never found out for myself or knew before, that the bogbean grows in Clyro. And (to think) I have walked 14 miles for that flower, when it grows close by.”

With the same lifelong interest in botany as her precursor prompting her to “smell the flowers along the way”, Linda keeps a lively chronicle: “Picked dormant catkins to watch as they come out… Cold day but a good walk, seven miles. Gym tomorrow at 7.30am... First snowdrops at Tuckmill and it was snowing...

Swans on the river and a ghostlike grey heron spearing its way up the Wye, 9½miles.”

If you are unable to join Linda beating boundaries, but want to visit the border at Brilley, you can follow the route suggested below to find the old Pant hinterland familiar to Kilvert at point four below. Returning along Red Lane, you can gain a spectacular appreciation of the distance which Linda will be travelling around the whole of Herefordshire.

For more about Linda Bishop Beating Boundaries, visit Linda’s page at st-michaels-hospice.

org.uk or contact the St Michael’s Hospice community fund-raising Team on 01432 851000. Donate direct to Linda’s campaign via justgiving.com/ LindaBishop.

THE ROUTE 1.

Brilley. Crossroads in Brilley with a layby and a telephone box, exactly on the Powys border.

Room for four vehicles at GR 258 505. Set off SW along road in only direction not named on signpost.

After 400m bear R off road along tree-lined track through gate R of green barn. Pass up through narrow field, narrowing further along Dark Lane, through gate. Keep straight ahead for 350m till level with metal gate, bear R, away from stone wall, gradually up to highest point of moorland.

2. Milton Hill. Reach and pass marker post. Go through bracken to second post. Now TL to descend from hill to pick up L edge fence. Bend R along R edge through gate in R corner and follow Red Lane ahead, just under one mile. At T-junction of paths, TL along Offa’s Dyke Path. Follow it down to crossroads. TR along road for just under a quarter mile.

3. Crowther’s Pool. Before isolated shelter, TL over stile up R edge, R of stand of fir trees. Go through gate, over stile, ford, gate and gap in stone wall to road. TR past stone structure and TL over stile and half left across pasture. Cross stile by gates, ahead in next pasture over f/bridge, up over stile and TL. Follow L edge/ hedge down and around to L.

4. The Pant Cottage – formerly.

This bend in the path by the brook is right on the country border where Kilvert’s “Betsey” bore her child. Go through gate, along L edge, over stile and TR down to next stile. Don’t cross it. Instead T very sharp L up pasture, through k-gate, under t/pole, to road at Cae Higgin.

5. Cae Higgin. TL, climbing road and just before brick bungalow on L, take second R along Offa’s Dyke Path, up through gate. Follow path, over duckboards to crossroads.

TR along road for just under one mile.

6. Track Unsuitable For Motor Vehicles. 100m beyond bridge over brook, TL up track. Bend R at top, with trees L and hedge R.

Bend R again and where Red Lane becomes metalled road, go ahead back to start. Spectacular views to May Hill and Black Mountains show the full compass of Herefordshire. Thanks to Sara Watts of Brilley for sharing her local knowledge.