{"id":2699,"date":"2021-10-25T08:30:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T08:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2699"},"modified":"2021-10-22T09:10:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T09:10:04","slug":"the-life-and-death-of-thomas-hardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/10\/25\/the-life-and-death-of-thomas-hardy\/","title":{"rendered":"The life and death of Thomas Hardy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent set of purchases at auction throw new light on our understanding on one of the most prominent figures in Dorset\u2019s history.\u00a0 The purchases were funded by Friends of the National Libraries<\/a> with a contribution from Dorset Archives Trust<\/a>.\u00a0 DHC was delighted to be able to acquire these items which will now form part of the permanent public collection and is extremely grateful for the financial support that was made available by both these charities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first of the items in question is a letter written in September 1927 by Florence Hardy to a Mr. Lea of Bockhampton.\u00a0 In it, she describes the deteriorating health of her husband Thomas.\u00a0 She tells of a \u2018very able London Doctor\u2019 Sir Henry Head who had retired to Dorset and who was being particularly attentive to Hardy.\u00a0 Sir Henry had advised that Hardy<\/p>\n

\u2018ought not to see friends or any callers, two days in succession\u2026[as]\u2026the strain of a long conversation is very bad for his heart\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Florence then goes on to list the upcoming visitors and social engagements that the couple anticipated which appears to somewhat fly in the face of the medical advice proffered by Sir Henry.\u00a0 The letter is poignant in that it was written a little over four months before Hardy\u2019s death on 14 January 1928 of a cardiac-related condition.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The second item is a pair of Thomas Hardy-related letters dated immediately after the author\u2019s death.\u00a0 The exchange concerns the arrangements for the interment of the author\u2019s ashes at Poet\u2019s Corner in Westminster Abbey.\u00a0 The Dean of Westminster writes to the Vicar of Fordingdon, the Reverend Richard Grosvenor Bartelot that his decision to permit Hardy\u2019s burial<\/p>\n

\u2018has given rise to a great deal of controversy.\u00a0 I am receiving every day furious protests on the ground that his teaching was anti-Christian and that he himself was not a Christian, that his moral standard was very low, etc.\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Dean goes on to say that having previously ignored the criticism, he had now received a letter from the \u2018head of a great religious body\u2019 and that he now felt compelled to properly respond to Hardy\u2019s detractors.<\/p>\n

The Reverend Bartelot replied that although convinced of Hardy\u2019s essential Christianity, in matters of religion,<\/p>\n

\u2018he had never been able to penetrate the armour\u2019 and that \u2018he [Hardy] absolutely refused to be \u201cdrawn\u201d on religious matters\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bartelot then proceeds to offer six reasons why Hardy (in his opinion) was \u2018at heart a Christian and a Churchman\u2019 despite the fact that he had never taken the sacrament or attended services in his own parish church.\u00a0 The justifications quoted by Bartelot focus largely upon charitable acts rather than explicitly religious undertakings.\u00a0 The first of these was given as Hardy\u2019s subscription to<\/p>\n

\u2018the restoration of our church specially allocating his donations towards the abolition of two hideous Tuscan arches erected in 1833 by the Rev H Moule.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the relative paucity of obvious religious activity, Bartelot points to what he calls \u2018the absolute moral rectitude of his [Hardy\u2019s] private life\u2019 as well as his \u2018keen interest in church music\u2019.<\/p>\n

As we now know, Hardy\u2019s ashes were indeed interred in Westminster Abbey<\/a> on 16 January 1928.\u00a0 The event was attended by amongst others Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald, Rudyard Kipling, J. M. Barrie, G. B. Shaw and A. E. Housman.\u00a0 Underscoring Hardy\u2019s undying associations with Dorset, a spadeful of soil, supplied by a local farm labourer Christopher Corbin was sprinkled on the casket.<\/p>\n

These letters written about Hardy rather than by him provide fascinating details of the author\u2019s life and the perspectives held on him by others.\u00a0 It is also interesting to note the contentious debate that broke out around Hardy\u2019s religious convictions as the nation mourned the person described by the New York Times in its obituary as the \u2018master of English letters\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent set of purchases at auction throw new light on our understanding on one of the most prominent figures in Dorset\u2019s history.\u00a0 The purchases were funded by Friends of the National Libraries with a contribution from Dorset Archives Trust.\u00a0 DHC was delighted to be able to acquire these items which will now form part… Read more The life and death of Thomas Hardy<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[82,154,109,187],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2702,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699\/revisions\/2702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}