Chapter I: Front Matter

THOMAS HARDY'S DORSET

_Works by the same Author_

RUDYARD KIPLING: A CHARACTER STUDY GEORGE BORROW: LORD OF THE OPEN ROAD WAR AND THE WEIRD THE AMBER GIRL KIPLING'S SUSSEX FRIENDLY SUSSEX. (_In the Press_)

THOMAS HARDY'S DORSET

BY R. THURSTON HOPKINS

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY E. HARRIES AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK D APPLETON AND COMPANY 1922

FIRST EDITION 1922 COPYRIGHT

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED EDINBURGH

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. DORSET FOLK AND DORSET WAYS 13

The Dorset Rustic a Genial Fellow--Unconscious Humour--The Jovial Blacksmith--Cider-making--The Poetic Tippler--Anglo-Saxon Tongue--Enigmatical Sayings and Proverbs--A Dorset Rector and his Ale--Whiplegs--Thatch and "Cob"--A Beautiful Tract between Seaton and West Bay--The Devil's Own Card--Thomas Hardy's Story of Witchcraft--Conjurer Trendle--The Piskies--The Bibulous Farmer and the Piskies--The Cider Mill--Happy Days at Hovey's Barn--Marc Bricks--A Game of "Hunting"--A Dorset Vicar on Miracles--Akermann's _Wiltshire Glossary_--William Barnes--"Dorset's good enough for me!"--Large Farm Kitchens

II. BARFORD ST MARTIN TO TISBURY AND SHAFTESBURY 33

Tisbury--John Lockwood Kipling--The Green Dragon at Barford St Martin--The Man who laughed gloriously--Points of Perfection in a Greyhound--The Best Dog that ever breathed--Shaftesbury and its Traditions--A Curious Custom--A Story of Water-carrying Days at Shaston--Bimport and _Jude the Obscure_--Old Grove's Place--Marnhull--Pure Drop Inn

III. THE VALE OF BLACKMOOR 45

Fortune scowls on me--The Song of the Nightingale--A Little Round-Faced Man--The Hauntings of Woolpit House--The Vale of Blackmoor--White-Hart Silver--King's Stag Inn--The Length of Life in Animals--Folk-Sayings of Blackmoor--The Maidens of Blackmoor--Barnes the Poet

IV. BLANDFORD TO DORCHESTER 59

Blandford--Winterborne Whitchurch--Turberville the Poet--Milborne St Andrews--"Welland House"--Hardy's _Two on a Tower_--Puddletown--The Story of Farmer Dribblecombe and the Christmas Ale--The Ancient Family of Martins--The Ape of the Martins--The Last of the Martins--The Church of Puddletown--A Sad Love Story--"Weatherbury Upper Farm"

V. DORCHESTER 69

Daniel Defoe's Description of Dorchester--Doctor Arbuthnot--St Peter's Church--Thomas Hardy of Melcombe Regis--William Barnes--Judge Jeffreys--Maumbury Rings--Mary Channing strangled and burnt--Thomas Hardy and Relics of Roman Occupation--Maiden Castle--Old Inns--The Grammar School--Napper's Mite--Hangman's Cottage--The Bull Stake--"Jopp's Cottage"--Priory Ruins--High Place Hall--Colyton House--The Mask with a Leer--Thomas Hardy and the Habits of Bridge Haunters--Dorchester Ale--"Groves" Stingo--_The Trumpet Major_--Toby Fillpot--A Dorchester Butt--_Far from the Madding Crowd_--"Yellowham Wood"--The Brown Owl--The Hedge Pig--Fordington--Church of St George--Hardy's "Mellstock"--Winterborne Villages--Original Manuscript of _Mayor of Casterbridge_--Wolverton House--Knightly Trenchards--Cerne Abbas and "The Giant"

VI. A LITERARY NOTE: THOMAS HARDY AND WILLIAM BARNES 98

Hardy's Grandfather--Hardy as a Poet--Primitive Nature Worship--Prose Poem of the Cider-Maker--William Barnes--Troublous Days--"Woak Hill"--Pathetic Touch

VII. BERE REGIS AND THE ANCIENT FAMILY OF TURBERVILLE 122

Yellowham Hill--"The Royal Oak" at Bere Regis--My Friend the Thatcher--The Complete Guide to Thatching--Bere Regis Church--Humorous Norman Carvings--Sepulchre of the Turbervilles--Outline of Hardy's _Tess_--A Turberville Tradition--The First of the Turbervilles--Bryant's Puddle--The Old Turberville Manor House--Descendants of the Illegitimate Turbervilles--A Flagrant Poacher--The Tyrant of the Tudor Inn--Hodge the eternally efficient--Hardy's Tess and Wellbridge Manor House--Tess's Ancestors--Smoke Pence--Superstition and Shrewdness mingled in the Rustic--"Old Gover"--The Story of the Turberville Coach--Bindon Abbey--Tess--A Sinister Old Wood

VIII. ROUND AND ABOUT WEYMOUTH 147

Weymouth and Melcombe Regis--Rivalry of the Old Boroughs--George III.--The Sands--Uncle Benjy and Inflated Prices--Sandsfoot Castle--Weymouth Localities in _The Trumpet Major_--_The Dynasts_--The Dorset Rustic and Boney--The Girls of Budmouth--The "Naples of England"--Mr Harper on the Hardy Country--Georgian Houses--The Realest Things--Interesting Relics--Preston--Sutton Poyntz--_The Trumpet Major_--Overcombe Mill--To keep Dorset fair--A Soldier Poet--Bincombe--Racy Saxon Speech--Hardy on Wessex Words--Poxwell--Owermoigne--Lulworth Cove--Portisham--Admiral Hardy--Abbotsbury

IX. POOLE 163

Poole Harbour--The Quay--An English Buccaneer--Brownsea-- Lytchett--"To please his Wife"--An Enjoyable Coast Ramble

X. SWANAGE AND CORFE CASTLE 168

Kingsley's Description of Swanage--Tilly Whim--Thomas Hardy's "Knollsea"--The Quarry Folk--A Mediæval Trades Guild--Old Dorset Family Names--Marrying the Land--High Street at Swanage--Quaint Houses and a Mill-Pond--St Mary's Church--Newton Manor--Studland--The Agglestone--Langton Matravers-- Kingston--Enckworth Court--Corfe--The Greyhound Hotel--An Elizabethan Manor-House--Corfe Church--A Brave Good Chest--Curfew--Churchwardens and the Degrees of Inebriation--Reward for killing a Fox--Lonely Kingdom of an Inn--Wareham--Wild Life on the Frome--Wareham once a Port--The "Bloody Bank"--Peter of Pomfret--Meaning of the Name Wareham--Bishop Cating--St Mary's Church--"Black Bear" and "Red Lion"--Chapel of St Martin

XI. MY ADVENTURE WITH A MERRY ROGUE 191

My Sentimentalism over old Inns, old Ale and old Drinking Vessels--Morcombe Lake--"Dorset Knobs"--The Lonely Singer--The Leather Black Jack--Sleeping with Miss Green--Lyme Regis--The Curiosity Shop--"The Spirit of the Artist and the Soul of a Rogue"--We are all Rogues!

XII. THE DEVON AND DORSET BORDERLAND 207

Stirring Events--Duke of Monmouth--New Inn--Youth beckons with Magic Poignancy--Smuggling Days--Buddle River Manners--The Cobb--Granny's Teeth--Buddle Bridge--Town Hall--Henry Fielding--Church of St Michael--Broad Street--The Master Smith of Lyme--M'Neill Whistler--Old Songs--Beware of Late Shooting--Axminster--George Inn--Musbury--Colyton--Knightly Poles--"Little Choke-Bone"--The Courtenays--A Rare British Flower--Lambert's Castle--Charmouth--Charles II.

XIII. RAMBLES AROUND BRIDPORT 230

Toller of the Pigs--Noble Windows--Whyford Eagle--A Curious Tympanum--A Remarkable Oven--Rampisham--"The Tiger's Head"--Cross-in-Hand--Alec D'Urberville--Batcombe-- Conjuring Minterne--The Conjurer of Bygone Days--Hardy's Story, "The Withered Arm"--Minterne's Tomb--Kipling and a Sussex "Conjurer"--Bridport--Charles II.--Hardy's _Fellow Townsmen_--"Greyhound Hotel"--A Lover of Horses--"Bucky Doo"--"The Bull" and Thomas Hardy--Footpath to West Bay--The Chesil Beach--The "Anchor Inn" at Seatown

XIV. ROUND ABOUT BEAMINSTER 244

Beaminster--Lewson Hill and Pil'son Pen--Blue Vinny Cheese--"Trinkrums" on a Church--An Eerie Story-- Netherbury--Robert Morgan and his "Feeble Hedde"

A GLOSSARY OF WEST-COUNTRY PROVINCIALISMS 249

Chosen in part from _Notes and Queries_; Akermann's _Wiltshire Glossary_; _The Peasant Speech of Devon_, by Sarah Hewett; Crossing's _Folk Rhymes of Devon_; _The Saxon-English_, by W. Barnes; The Works of Thomas Hardy; and many Sources not generally known

ILLUSTRATIONS

Birthplace of Thomas Hardy _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE
Stocks at Tollard Royal 34

The Green Dragon at Barford St Martin 38

The Giant, Cerne Abbas 92

Bingham's Melcombe 100

Hurdle-making at Bere Regis 126

Woolbridge House 136

Corfe Castle, 1865 160

The Famous Tillywhim Caves, 1860 170

Corfe Castle, 1860 176

The Lonely Singer 194

The River Buddle, Lyme Regis 202

The Master Smith of Lyme Regis 218

Drake Memorial at Musbury 222

THOMAS HARDY'S DORSET