Mr. Darcy chose to leave the second week in April, Easter falling later that year, so as to miss the several hunts which covered the area between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire. Whilst not opposed to any sport himself, Mr. Darcy had no wish to have his coach run through by the hunt, so frequently were leaders seen breaking their traces to bolt away with the pack, and the wheelers thrown down upon the pole, over-turning the carriage and subjecting the vehicle, its contents, and its passengers to much delay, disorder, and injury. Leaving Pemberley, the Darcys travelled through Burton to Lichfield to shew Elizabeth where the late Mr. Darwin had lived, and continued on to Great Barr Park to visit Mr. Galton. The present Mr. Darcy had not been of age to be a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, but had several times attended its meetings in the summer months with his father, and was on easy, friendly terms with many of its members. The Society was no longer extant, but the surviving members still enjoyed a regular correspondence, in which Mr. Darcy took part. Leaving Birmingham, and by passing through by the most expeditious route, they reached Gloucestershire within the week. This country was similar to Hertfordshire, thought Elizabeth, although less settled.

The last distance of their road went through the area of the Cotswolds, with its hills and villages of yellow stone, all built more or less of a piece in the century of Queen Elizabeth, giving them a very pretty, regular appearance. Elizabeth mused that she had never seen the equal of the picturesque clusters of houses surrounding the old chapels and the requisite gabled manors as they passed through the hills and wool-villages. The villages were becoming quiet now, with the cottage industry largely moved off to the great mills and manufactories of the midlands, but Elizabeth could imagine their noise and liveliness in the time of the Queen, when the villages were new, and England was yet to defeat the Spanish navy and acquire the wealth and power of the Spanish Kings. The places were now very peaceful and pleasant, but Elizabeth, with her love of humanity and its noise and bustle, felt that the quietude was come at a price, and she was herself of no firm mind as to the removal of the livelihoods of these villages being entirely a good thing.