The Historic Walk from Lichfield to launch Samuel Johnson’s Tercentenary
Anyone who happened to be walking around Lichfield on the morning of Monday 2nd March may have been surprised to be passed by two gents in Georgian garb. The marvellous spectacle was all in honour of the official launch of a year of celebrations for Dr Samuel Johnson’s 300th Birthday, and to raise money for the National Literacy Trust. Dr Nicholas Cambridge, Chairman of the Johnson Society of London, and Professor Peter Martin, author of a recent Johnson biography, walked a 165 route from Lichfield to London along the canal network. The journey echoes that taken in 1737 by Johnson and David Garrick to find their fortunes in the capital. Our modern day Johnson and Garrick set out from the Birthplace Museum on the Market Square in Lichfield after joining a breakfast reception with the Mayor of Lichfield and other civic dignitaries. Following an announcement from the town crier, crowds gathered to watch the official farewells from the Mayor and Bishop of Oxford, who appeared the previous afternoon at evensong at Lichfield Cathedral with a special blessing for the intrepid pair. Just after 9.00am Johnson, Garrick and a band of followers headed out of Lichfield. Once out of the city centre, the walk turned off the main roads and onto the route of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust Restoration works. The party passed by restored Locks 25 and 26, through Darnford Park and over a rebuilt bridge on Capper’s Lane. With the kind assistance of the Lichfield Cruising Club, the group reached the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford Junction. Here the crowd said their farewells to Dr Cambridge and Professor Martin before heading back to Lichfield for a well-earned cup of coffee at the Lichfield Garrick. That evening, the walkers met the Mayor of Birmingham in a reception at the Central Library and after 11 days on the canals, they ended with a grand Guildhall reception with the Lord Mayor of London.
“Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.”
To read a full blog with a map of the walk route, visit www.johnson2009.org/walk.html
For more information about the Birthplace Museum and all the Birthday events in Lichfield, visit www.samueljohnsonbirthplace.org.uk
To find out more about the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust, visit www.lhcrt.org.uk
Please Note: Some parts of the route walked on Monday 2nd March were by special arrangement over private land.
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