Deep in Hardy country

Hardy's beguilingly pretty Wessex is the setting for three houses with links to people and places that fuelled the writer's imagination

THOMAS HARDY'S Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) was his first of many novels to be set in the fictional county of Wessex. A broader interpretation has taken the area to include all of South-West England, but, in some people's imaginations, Wessex is Dorset. He referred to its landscapes time and again as a backdrop for his tales of love and tragedy. When guides to Hardy's literary landmarks began to appear, it alarmed the author, who wrote in the preface to the 1895 edition of Far From the Madding Crowd that Wessex was 'a merely realistic dream-country'.

Dorset, for many, is dream country and the epitome of unspoilt English countryside. It is gloriously unscathed by motorways; even the A303 only briefly dips across the county border at Bourton. Further unscarred by the Industrial Revolution that passed it by, Dorset's ancient hill forts, chalk downs, wooded valleys and rural charm have attracted artists and writers for centuries. The most spirited of fans call it England's Tuscany-a place you think you know, until you look beyond the obvious towns and famous views.

This week sees the launch of a Dorset estate, one that selling agent James Crawford of Knight Frank says represents a once-ina-decade opportunity. Bingham's Melcombe, near Dorchester (or Casterbridge in the Hardy lexicon), is a small 112-acre country estate set in its own combe. Alongside an impressive Grade I-listed manor house, it comes with a Dower House, two cottages and historic landscaped gardens. Mr Crawford describes the setting as 'gorgeous: a heaven. It's so quiet, you don't hear a car door slamming. You might spot the odd parishioner going to church in the distance [the parish church, St Andrew's, is the only building not owned by the estate], but that's it'.