For example, a 70-minute train ride from Liverpool Street station to the town of Manningtree in Essex county is the starting point for discovering the Stour Valley scenery that inspired the painter John Constable. The approximately 3½-hour, 7½-mile trail passes through the village of Dedham, once a flourishing textile center, and where Constable attended grammar school. Depending on the season, you might see five-petal primroses in sun-dappled hedgerows, cowslips on grasslands where sheep graze, dainty white wood anemones or even orchids. On the 4-hour, 8½-mile walk from Limpsfield in Surrey (30 minutes from London Bridge station), famed for its carpet of sweet-scented bluebells in late spring, bird-watchers can listen for nightingales or spot hawks circling overhead. I chose this destination because it included the pebble beach along Sandwich Bay and because I’ve always wanted to tick a box off my bucket list by having a sandwich in Sandwich.

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Persons: John Constable, Constable, I’ve Organizations: Liverpool Street, London Locations: Manningtree, Essex county, Dedham, Limpsfield, Surrey, Wye, London’s St, Pancras, Sandwich, Kent, St