Chapter I: Front Matter

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler

[Picture: Weymouth: St. Mary Street and statue of George III.]

THE
HARDY COUNTRY

LITERARY LANDMARKS OF
THE WESSEX NOVELS

* * * * *

BY
CHARLES G. HARPER
AUTHOR OF “THE INGOLDSBY COUNTRY,” ETC.

“Here shepherds pipe their rustic song,
Their flocks and rural nymphs among.”

[Picture: Medallion]

_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR_

* * * * *

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1904

_PREFACE_

_Dorsetshire_, _the centre of the_ “_Hardy Country_,” _the home of the Wessex Novels_, _is a land literally flowing with milk and honey_: _a land of great dairies_, _of flowers and bees_, _of rural industries_, _where rustic ways and speech and habits of thought live long_, _and the kindlier virtues are not forgotten in such stress of life as prevails in towns_: _a land desirable for its own sweet self_, _where you may see the beehives in cottage gardens and therefrom deduce that honey of which I have spoken_, _and where that flow of milk is no figure of speech_. _You may indeed hear the swish of it in the milking pails at almost every turn of every lane_.

_Thatch survives in every village_, _as nowhere else_, _and here quaint towns maintain their quaintness at all odds_, _while elsewhere foolish folk seek to be—as they phrase it_—“_up to date_.” _It is good_, _you think_, _who explore these parts_, _to be out of date and reckless of all the tiresome worries of modernity_.

_Spring is good in Dorset_, _summer better_, _autumn—when the kindly fruits of the earth are ingathered and __the smell of pomace is sweet in the mellow air—best_. _Winter_? _Well_, _frankly_, _I don’t know_.

_To all these natural advantages has been added in our generation the romantic interest of Mr. Thomas Hardy’s novels of rural life and character_, _in which real places are introduced with a lavish hand_. _The identity of those places is easily resolved_; _and_, _that feat performed_, _there is that compelling force in his genius which inevitably_, _sooner or later_, _magnetically draws those who have read_, _to see for themselves what manner of places and what folk they must be in real life_, _from whose characteristics such poignant tragedy_, _such suave and admirable comedy_, _have been evolved_. _I have many a time explored Egdon_, _and observed the justness of the novelist’s description of that sullen waste_: _have traversed Blackmoor Vale_, _where_ “_the fields are never brown and the springs never dry_,” _but where the roads—it is a cyclist’s criticism—are always shockingly bad_: _in fine_, _have visited every literary landmark of the Wessex Novels_. _If I have not found the rustics so sprack-witted as they are in_ THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE _and other stories—why_, _I never expected so to find them_, _for I did not imagine the novelist to be a reporter_. _But—this is in testimony to the essential likeness to life of his women—I know_ “_Bathsheba_”; _only she is not a farmer_, _nor in_ “_Do’set_,” _and I have met_ “_Viviette_” _and_ “_Fancy_.” _They were called by other names_, _’tis true_; _but they were_, _and are_, _those distracting characters come to life_.

_A word in conclusion_. _No attempt has here been made to solemnly_ “_expound_” _the novelist_. _He_, _I take it_, _expounds himself_. _Nor has it been thought necessary to exclude places simply for the reason that they by some chance do not find mention in the novels_. _These pages are_, _in short_, _just an attempt to record impressions received of a peculiarly beautiful and stimulating literary country_, _and seek merely to reflect some of the joy of the explorer and the enthusiasm of an ardent admirer of the novelist_, _who here has given tongues to trees and a voice to every wind_.

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM, SURREY,
_July_ 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. PRELIMINARIES: THE HARDY COUNTRY DEFINED; 1
FAWLEY MAGNA; OXFORD
II. WINCHESTER: THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF WESSEX 9
III. WINCHESTER TO STOCKBRIDGE AND WEYHILL 16
IV. STOCKBRIDGE TO SALISBURY AND STONEHENGE 26
V. THE OLD COACH-ROAD: SALISBURY TO BLANDFORD 35
VI. THE OLD COACH-ROAD: BLANDFORD TO DORCHESTER 47
VII. DORCHESTER 62
VIII. DORCHESTER (_continued_) 74
IX. SWANAGE 84
X. SWANAGE TO CORFE CASTLE 92
XI. CORFE CASTLE 105
XII. WAREHAM 114
XIII. WAREHAM TO WOOL AND BERE REGIS 122
XIV. BERE REGIS 133
XV. THE HEART OF THE HARDY COUNTRY 148
XVI. DORCHESTER TO CROSS-IN-HAND, MELBURY, AND 168
YEOVIL
XVII. SHERBORNE 178
XVIII. SHERBORNE TO CERNE ABBAS AND WEYMOUTH 191
XIX. SHERBORNE TO CERNE ABBAS AND WEYMOUTH 205
(_continued_)
XX. WEYMOUTH 214
XXI. THE ISLE OF PORTLAND 222
XXII. WEYMOUTH TO BRIDPORT AND BEAMINSTER 232
XXIII. WEYMOUTH TO LULWORTH COVE 246
XXIV. BOURNEMOUTH TO POOLE 257
XXV. WIMBORNE MINSTER 270
XXVI. WIMBORNE MINSTER TO SHAFTESBURY 277
XXVII. WIMBORNE MINSTER TO SHAFTESBURY (_continued_) 288
XXVIII. WIMBORNE MINSTER TO HORTON AND MONMOUTH ASH 297
XXIX. OVER THE HILLS, BEYOND THE RAINBOW 302
INDEX 313

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Weymouth: St. Mary Street and Statue of George III. _Frontispiece_ Fawley Magna 3 High Street, Oxford, _Facing_ 4 High Street, Winchester 11 Winchester Cathedral, _Facing_ 14 Weyhill Fair 24 Salisbury Cathedral 30 Stonehenge 32 Pentridge 36 Eastbury 41 Blandford Forum 45 The Old Manor-House, Milborne St. Andrew 49 Weatherbury Castle 50 The Obelisk, Weatherbury Castle 51 Piddletown 55 A Quaint Corner in Piddletown 57 Lower Walterstone Farm; Original of “Bathsheba’s 59 Farm” in _Far from the Madding Crowd_ Ten Hatches, Dorchester 69 Dorchester Gaol 75 The Hangman’s Cottage, Dorchester 77 Colyton House, Dorchester 79 The Old Church, Swanage 89 Encombe 95 Corfe Castle 99 Corfe Castle, _Facing_ 106 Approach to Wareham: The Walls of Wareham 116 Wareham 119 The Abbot’s Coffin, Bindon Abbey 123 Woolbridge House 125 Woolbridge House: Entrance Front 127 Gallows Hill, Egdon Heath, _Facing_ 128 Chamberlain’s Bridge 130 Rye Hill, Bere Regis 131 Bere Regis 135 Bere Regis 137 Bere Regis: Interior of Church 141 “Toothache,” Bere Regis 143 “Headache,” Bere Regis 143 Bere Regis: The Turberville Window 145 Stinsford Church; the “Mellstock” of _Under the 149 Greenwood Tree_ Birthplace of Thomas Hardy 158 Birthplace of Thomas Hardy 159 The Duck Inn, Original of the “Quiet Woman” Inn in 161 _The Return of the Native_ Tincleton 163 An Egdon Farmstead 165 A Farm on Egdon 166 Cross-in-Hand, _Facing_ 170 Batcombe 171 Tomb of “Conjuring Minterne” 173 Melbury House, _Facing_ 174 Sherborne Abbey Church, _Facing_ 184 Long Burton 192 Holnest: the Drax Mausoleum 194 Dungeon Hill and the Vale of Blackmore 195 Cerne Abbas 201 The Gatehouse, Cerne Abbey, _Facing_ 202 The Cerne Giant 203 Cerne Abbas 206 Wolveton House 207 Weymouth and Portland from the Ridgeway 209 The Wishing Well, Upwey 211 Weymouth Harbour 219 Sandsfoot Castle 223 Bow and Arrow Castle 229 Portisham 233 The Road out of Abbotsbury 235 Sheep-Shearing in Wessex, _Facing_ 236 West Bay, Bridport 239 High Street and Town Hall, Bridport 243 Sutton Poyntz: the “Overcombe” of _The Trumpet 247 Major_ Bincombe 249 Poxwell Manor 251 Owermoigne: the Smugglers’ Haunt in _The Distracted 253 Preacher_ Lulworth Cove 254 Lulworth Cove 255 Lytchett Heath: The Equestrian Effigy of George 256 III.: Entrance to Charborough Park, _Facing_ Bournemouth: The Invalids’ Walk 258 Poole Quay 267 Sturminster Marshall: Anthony Etricke’s Tomb, 270 Wimborne Minster, _Facing_ The Wimborne Clock Jack 273 Wimborne Minster: the Minster and the Grammar 274 School, _Facing_ The Tower, Charborough Park 281 Weather-vane at Shapwick: the “Shapwick Monster” 283 The Maypole, Shillingstone 285 Sturminster Newton: The White Hart Inn 286 Marnhull 289 Gold Hill, Shaftesbury 295 The Observatory, Horton, _Facing_ 298 Horton Inn: the “Lorton Inn” of _Barbara of the 299 House of Grebe_ Monmouth Ash 300 Bingham’s Melcombe 303 Milton Abbas, _Facing_ 306 Milton Abbas, an Early “Model” Village 307 Abbot Milton’s Rebus, Milton Abbey 309 Milton Abbey 310 Turnworth House 311