A Virtual Tour Of Wessex

Tim Laycock, Artistic Director of The New Hardy Players takes us on a literary ramble through the landscapes that inspired Thomas Hardy

- Thomas Hardy

There are some heights in Wessex, shaped as if by a kindly hand

For thinking, dreaming, dying on, and at crises when I stand,

Say, on Ingpen beacon eastward, or Wylls-Neck westerly,

I seem where I was before my birth, and after death may be.

So begins Thomas Hardy’s majestic poem, celebrating the solace that he gained from walking on the Dorset hills. Hardy was a great walker and cyclist, and the richly varied landscapes of the county were an endless source of inspiration to him. He loved the local crafts, the folk-life of the working people, the oral culture of the area and the old stories of the village communities.

In later life Hardy greatly enjoyed motoring all over Dorset with his friend Hermann Lea, showing him the houses, farms, churches and lanes that suggested places featured in the Wessex novels. Hardy was, however, always careful to say that they could never definitively be identified!

Even if we can’t get out, we can still enjoy unrivalled descriptions of the varied and beautiful landscapes of the county through Hardy’s novels and poems, and the through the eyes and the actions of his characters. So dig out that old copy of Far From the Madding Crowd or Tess of the D’Urbervilles. If you prefer shorter stories, I would recommend Wessex Scenes and Life’s Little Ironies. Both collections contain superb stories of the curious, comic and tragic goings-on of Wessex folk.

From my own front door, here’s a literary ramble around Dorset visiting in a virtual way just a few of the lovely locations to be found in Hardy’s writing. There are many more to choose from!