#TheWoodlanders a Thomas Hardy walk

Thomas Hardy is my favourite author. I will not get all literary here save to say I find it easy to be absorbed by his narratives, his descriptions and his observations of both people and nature. It also makes me smile that we share the same birth date - albeit 175 years apart.

Many years ago I joined The Thomas Hardy Society. One of the things I came across as a result was the Society had identified and published what they call "Hardy's walks". Hardy's Wessex is of course semi fictional - place names in the novels are not actual names - Wessex does not actually exist - but it is clearly drawn from real places and the experiences Hardy had enjoyed from them. Consequently it is possible to tie in place names with the names Hardy uses and in this way The Thomas Hardy Society have been able to identify, describe and map some walks that form settings for Hardy novels.
There are 6 walks all together I think - all based in and around where Hardy was born and brought up - Dorchester (his Casterbridge). It has been on my to do list to do these walks for years. Finally I have done one! I shall describe it below.

We did the "Woodlanders walk" - which is central to his well known novel (and atmospheric film) The Woodlanders. Before I describe the walk - a bit of housekeeping!

Mid October - but the weather was ok - some rain not really cold. We are hardy campers (pun not intended!). We like it simple. We find a small farm camp site adjacent to Thorncombe Wood - (which surrounds Hardy's cottage - his birth place - at Higher Bockhampton). We set up our little tent - there is no one else on the site. Amazing - we sit looking out on the wood Hardy was brought up in. We are close to the lane he must have walked thousands of times. Camping is great - we are out in the elements - we cook our dinner on the meths fuelled Trangia. A chilli!) Camping food always tastes good.

Next morning is the 7 mile Woodlanders walk. It is in north west Dorset - not far by car. We drive to the start in the picturesque village of Evershot. Already it evokes a Hardy setting. The walk starts at The Common - marked by a big Holm Oak. Instructions are to proceed up the lane - north until you get to the massive Scots Pine where you bear right. It is very quiet - it is peaceful - it is lovely. We are walking where Hardy walked - we are walking where Grace Melbury and Giles Winterbourne walked too - ha!

Thereafter we follow the written instructions - sometimes a bit of a puzzle - there are a myriad of paths and bridleways. The OS map we have is very useful - actually essential I would say.

It was some time ago that I read The Woodlanders. It is the setting - the rural setting - the woodland setting in and around Hardy's Little Hintock and the people working there that has stayed with me more than the specifics of the narrative. Much of this walk takes you back to that time. Much I am sure has not changed. There is still the smell of wood smoke on this bright autumn day. There has been little building development - the magnificent trees still dominate - it is agricultural - it is unspoilt. However there is one blight - the A37 - and we noticed it around Upper Bockhampton too - the A35. Despite being well off road - despite no sight of a road - there is the distant irritant of traffic noise. It is not loud but too often it is there. In Hardy's time there was no traffic - just horses and carriages. It does detract from the purity a little.

But the walk is great. I will admit to getting jumbled in my mind between actual place names and the ones Hardy uses - are they real or not - it forms a gentle smiling puzzle. It is lovely - I am very happy to be here in this semi fictional land.

As we look back there is a distant view of Hintock House ( actually Melbury House). Hintock House is where the femme fatale Felice Charmond was lady of the manor !? We walk Bubb Down Hill - to the trig point. There are great views of Blackmore Vale (Vale of the White Hart) beyond. We make the lovely walk down to the little village of Melbury Bubb and visit the little church - such a perfect little place. We sit on the grass outside the gate - eat our sandwiches (thank you Jo) and admire what the THS walk identifies as the house of the cad - Dr Fitzpiers. The lovely Grace Melbury lived in this village of course - and the heroic and tragic Giles Winterbourne had his cottage in the forest. Suke Damson and her husband Timothy Tang lived here too - walked on these lanes - it is fantasy - it is amusing - it is amusing to be here!

Dr Fitzpiers disappears ‘into the gorgeous autumn landscape’ in pursuit of Felice Charmond, to be

replaced by Giles Winterbourne who:

looked and smelt like Autumn's very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat‐colour, his
eyes blue as corn‐flowers, his boots and leggings dyed with fruit‐stains, his hands clammy
with the sweet juice of apples, his hat sprinkled with pips, and everywhere about him that
atmosphere of cider which at its first return each season has such an indescribable
fascination for those who have been born and bred among the orchards. ... Nature was
bountiful, she thought. No sooner had she been starved off by Edred Fitzpiers than another
being, impersonating bare and undiluted manliness, had arisen out of the earth, ready to
hand.
We make our way back to the trig point field.

the extensive wood which encloses this pasture is the site of the revels on ‘old Midsummer
eve’ when the girls ‘attempt some spell or enchantment which would afford them a glimpse of their future partners for life’.

It is then down the hill - through Stockwood - no one around whatsoever - just us in the timeless woods and fields - early stage autumnal and all the better for that. We find our way to St Edwold's church.

This is another idyllic spot with the house and tiny St Edwold’s church, tucked in below the wooded slopes

of Bubb Down. Stockwood (originally Stoke‐St‐Edwold) is championed by some as Little Hintock –whilst the

house and yard could be Mr Melbury’, there is nothing else there apart from the smallest church in

Dorset, which is almost attached to the house. In the search for Little Hintock, the church is actually a disadvantage

for in the novel only Great Hintock is so endowed.

We walk on across the fields - skies are getting ominous - we make a pub called the Rest and Welcome on the former Roman Road - now the A37. It is only us and the landlord. We are 30 minutes early for "happy hour". I ask does it get busy at happy hour - he says resignedly - not really - the only ones who come in are the ones that would be here anyway! In the course of a beer/cider the heavens open. We could stay - but we still have 2 or 3 miles to go and better not to try it in the dark! We have our wet weather gear in our rucksacks. We set out chuckling to ourselves. It is an atmospheric walk through the fields to the village of Melbury Sampford and then on through to the estate of Melbury Park with Melbury Park House (of Hintock House and Mrs Charmond) up the very long drive. Eventually we exit through the Lion Gate and down the hill to the massive Scots Pine and shortly to our car at Evershot. What a great walk - worth doing certainly without the Thomas Hardy Woodlanders connection - but all the better for it - it added a lot!

So then a gentle drive back to the tent. Some lovely food - and some wine and beer - very atmospheric being in a field at Higher Bockhampton as a massive full moon emerged from behind Thorncombe Wood. Wow. I must read The Woodlanders again!

Here are a few mob photos :