Note 78 — THE LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF DORSET

Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on June 2nd, 1840. In his seventeenth year he was articled to a Mr. Hicks, an ecclesiastical architect of Dorchester, to whom the restoration of many of the old South Dorset churches was entrusted. In 1862 he went to London, and became an assistant to Sir Arthur Blomfield, R.A. In 1874 he married Miss Emma Lavinia Gifford, niece of Dr. Gifford, Archdeacon of London, and formerly headmaster of King Edward’s School, Birmingham. Before taking up their residence at Dorchester, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy lived at Riverside, Sturminster Newton—the “Stourcastle” of the novels—and then at Wimborne, and finally settled at “Max Gate,” Dorchester, in 1885.