Elizabeth particularly enjoyed her visits to Mrs. Anne Wentworth, with whom she was become acquainted some years previously. Mr. Darcy found her husband, Captain Wentworth, to be an active, sporting man, and an excellent companion for fishing, shooting, or riding. Mr. Darcy often of a morning joined Captain Wentworth at the Corn Exchange to review the news, later meeting their ladies in the promenade, Queen’s Walk, or some other pleasant destination for conversation and exercise. If the weather were fine, they might take a walk to Beechen Cliff or Beacon Hill, Kingsmead Fields, or some other eminence to enjoy the view of the grand crescents and terraces. One year, the Darcys had persuaded the Bingleys to accompany them, for the first time leaving their children at home, with the prospect of providing Jane some much-needed restoration to her health and spirits. However, Jane was so often exerting herself either in writing instructions to the house-keeper about the children, or watching daily for the post in expectation of a reply to her instructions, and so little attending to any opportunity for diversion and rest, that she left Bath with little less fatigue than she had brought with her.

Travel farther afield encompassed a stay at Fort William, Inverness, and Dornoch, and a trip to John o’Groats with the Gardiners. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Darcy continued on to the outer Hebrides, leaving the ladies on the Isle of Skye for a fortnight. The gentlemen were well-pleased with their accomplishment, and Lizzy and her Aunt Gardiner had very pleasant walks along the Highland trails and the coastline near their hôtel. Mrs. Gardiner was not her niece’s equal to walking, so they engaged the hire of a donkey-cart to explore the island, including the ancient Armadale Castle on the cliffs, the home of the Lords MacDonalds. Turning homeward, they stopt to visit Lord B———, viewing the site of the ancient Christian monastery. En route, they crossed eastward so as to come through Arbroath, as Mr. Darcy wished to view Mr. Stevenson’s Bell Rock Lighthouse, a superb feat of engineering that had saved untold lives when his successful plan to put the light eleven miles out to sea—and in more than a rod of water—had worked, against all odds and all wagers to the contrary.