The collection of Hardy-related material acquired in late 2020 offers some fascinating insights into Hardy’s world and the eclectic range of contacts and correspondents he maintained links with and the wider perspective on Hardy’s life that this important purchase provides. Below, we look at a few of the stories to have emerged.
Hardy the son
Hardy’s annotated copy of the service sheet for the burial of his father at Stinsford Church on 31 July 1892 is included in the collection. A note in Hardy’s hand references the fact that the psalm to be sung on the day was ‘the graveside hymn of this parish down to about 1840’. The document carries a Latin inscription that anticipates a brass memorial funded by Hardy in memory of his family and their musical contributions to church life at Stinsford. The latter is of course the church where Hardy’s own heart was interred following his death in 1928 whilst his ashes were placed at Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Hardy the landlord
A letter dated 26 Many 1897 and addressed to a Mr Prideaux, who appears to be a tenant of the author, finds Hardy in apologetic mood
‘I am sorry that you should feel neglected…I gave directions immediately after seeing you that the repairs you mentioned should be executed’.
Alongside literary life, Hardy clearly had to keep on top of his duties as a landlord and property owner.
Hardy and ‘fake news’
In another piece of correspondence Hardy writes (undated) to the editor of the Dorset Chronicle, to complain that various quotations attributed to him and published by a London paper and repeated elsewhere were
‘unauthorised…being in some places ‘faked’’.
Hardy’s accusation has echoes of very modern media controversies. Such events where opinions or reported speech are later contested are clearly scarcely new.
Hardy, advocate for the compassionate treatment of animals
Hardy writes to the editor of the Dorset County Chronicle in November 1913 to express his support for the ‘excellent movement for the painless slaughtering of animals for food’ and criticises any attempts to obstruct its (the Council of Justice to Animals) work. Hardy was a member of the committee of the latter body which (now merged and known as the Humane Slaughter Association) still exists today.
Hardy the Poet
Included within the collection is a manuscript of a Hardy poem, November 1899 The Going of the Battery which describes the departure of the 73rd Battery of the Royal Field Artillery embarking from Dorchester station for service in the Boer War:
“Great guns were gleaming there, living
Things seeming there,
Cloaked in their tar-cloths, upmouthed to
the night”.
Numbers of that unit died in the South African conflict and there is a memorial to the 73rd in Exeter Cathedral ‘erected by their comrades’.
Hardy the author-collaborator
Within the collection is a proof copy with manuscript corrections of a short story Blue Jimmy: the Horse Stealer. The acknowledged author is Florence Dugdale (later the second Mrs Hardy) but it appears that the question of authorship has been a matter of debate with one biographer suggesting that Hardy wrote the entire story himself. Hardy’s annotations were all included in the final published version (in The Cornhill Magazine, February 1911) and it seems reasonable to deduce that Hardy collaborated on the story rather than wrote it all himself. Jimmy, who in the story seemingly evaded the law with ease, was ultimately brought to justice at Ilchester and hanged there in 1827.
This collection provides many lines of enquiry and research for anyone interested in either Hardy himself or the social, economic and political context in which he lived. We are delighted to be able to make it available to the wider world thanks to the generosity of those who supported its purchase.