If driving straight through, no stops, and no major traffic issues, you can get to the town of Dorchester in southwest England in around two and a half hours. Dorchester is a lovely destination, offering museums, restaurants, and a short drive to the coast. In addition, near Dorchester, you’ll find the birthplace and final resting place of the writer Thomas Hardy. He was born in an area called Higher Bockhampton, a ten-minute drive east of Dorchester. And the house he lived most of his life in, known as Max Gate, is just on the edge of town.
If you don’t know the name Thomas Hardy, he is probably most well-known for novels such as The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Under the Greenwood Tree (1872). However, he considered himself more a poet than a novelist, writing over 900 poems throughout his life, yet not publishing his first book of poetry until 1898.
First Stop: Hardy’s Cottage
The cottage he was born in is managed by the National Trust and is surrounded by a nature reserve interlaced with people and dog friendly trails. It is a short walk from the parking lot to the cottage. The cottage was built by his great-grandfather and has a cob and thatch that was standard during that time. His father, Thomas Hardy senior, was a builder and stonemason. So, the house we see here is not as it was originally built. His father added to the house, extending it. Notice the chimney in the middle. That previously was on an outer wall. Also, the extension to the right of that was added. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like then, as even walking through the home now, it felt like tight quarters.
Side note: In the US, we would look at a house of this age as historic. In England, with so much history, the guide told us if it weren’t for the association with Thomas Hardy, this would be just another cottage, like the others in the area.
Second Stop: Max Gate
Hardy and his first wife lived in London for a while, as well as in other areas in Dorset County. Eventually, they settled near Dorchester, where in 1883 Hardy leased 1.5 acres of land from the Duchy of Cornwall Estate and began construction on a home for the two of them. Hardy designed the house himself and used his family’s building connections to construct it. His brother Henry followed in their father’s business, also working as a builder. He later purchased it as a cost of £450 around £50,000 today. In 1885 Hardy and Emma move into Max Gate.
The house was surrounded by open land, so Thomas planted numerous trees to screen the home. During construction, they found Roman relics on the site and graves and bones. Instead of being disturbed by this news, Hardy became an amateur archeologist, studying and learning about the history and bones of those that were found. Additional skeletons were uncovered when digging a drain at the house, which turned out to be on a druidic site. In 1980, during the construction of a bypass, they discovered a Neolithic stone circle that I’m sure Hardy would have appreciated.
Max gate was extended from 1894 to 1896. Doubling the size. Various rooms were added to the rear of the property, including a new kitchen, two attic rooms, which became Emma’s, and a second square truant was added. Emma had asked Hardy to create for her a space which she could write, paint, read, and in sew in peace. So, he built her two small rooms in the attic above his, as by the mid-1890s their marriage was becoming increasingly hostile. Emma eventually moved completely into the attic, a space she described as “sweet refuge and solace”.
Thomas Hardy was such a celebrity in the day that tourist would peer over the hedges and walls, they would even go up to the house and peer through the windows in order to see him. So, he designed special shutters that could be raised from the bottom to prevent people from looking in. These were inspired by a similar design he saw in London. He also built a brick wall around the property for added seclusion.
Following his passing, his sister acquired the house and placed it in a trust. The home was maintained by live-in caretakers, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the home opened up for visitors.
Note: Max Gate is named after the nearby tollbooth, operated by Henry Mack, who was the last keeper of the tollbooth.
Last Stop: His Heart
In the weeks leading up to Christmas in 1927, Hardy became increasingly weak and developed a chill over the Christmas period and he lost his appetite. Florence’s sister, Eva, who was a nurse, came to help care for Hardy.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 11th, he asked for a rasher of bacon to be cooked for him over the open fire, and he spoke about how this was the way his mother had cooked it. In the early evening, he asked Florence to read him a verse from “Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám” and around 8:30 PM, he suffered a heart attack. A doctor was summoned, and Hardy passed away in his bedroom on January 11th, 1928, at the age of 87.
It was well known by his family that he wished to be buried at the St. Michael’s Church cemetery among graves of his family and his first wife Emma. However, Sir Sidney Cockerell and Sir James Barrie wanted his ashes buried in Westminster Abbey in the poet’s corner. Florence, grief stricken, eventually compromised and consented to his ashes being sent there and his heart remaining at the church. Henry and Kate, Thomas’s brother and sister, were not aware of this agreement and were quite upset when they found out.
There were three church services for Hardy. One was in Westminster Abbey with Florence and his sister Kate were in attendance. His ashes were buried in poets’ corner, and a spade of Dorset earth was sprinkled in the casket. Representatives of the royal family were in attendance, among other dignitaries. A Stinsford, another service was held at the grave of his first wife Emma where Hardy’s brother was the chief mourner. This is where his heart was buried. All business was spent suspended for one hour in Dorchester and the Saint Peter’s church in the center of town held a service for the public.
Note: for a more involved biography of Thomas Hardy, check out this article I posted to Medium.
Note: The links to his books are affiliate links. That means if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.