_______
/ \
/ WESSEX \
/ ~~~~~ \
/ \_ _/ \
| / \ / \ |
| | -o- | | "I am the family face;
| \ / \ / | flesh perishes, I live on"
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
"~~~~~~~~~"
THOMAS HARDY
1840-1928
The Wessex
A Tribute to Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
The Wessex Map
"The partly real, partly dream-country" Hardy created from the counties of southwestern England. Each Wessex name corresponds to a real place, transformed by imagination into something both recognizable and mythic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ Egdon Heath, unchangeable ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
. ^ . ^ . ^ .
/|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ /
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/
Casterbridge
(Dorchester)
The county town, with its Roman amphitheater and bustling market. Michael Henchard walked these streets from ruin to redemption to ruin again.
Christminster
(Oxford)
The city of dreaming spires that called to Jude Fawley, always visible on the horizon but forever beyond reach for the stoneworker's son.
Egdon Heath
(The Dorset heaths)
A vast, ancient, unchanging presence—Hardy's 'untameable' wild where Eustacia Vye paced and yearned for Paris.
Weatherbury
(Puddletown)
Bathsheba's farming country, with its great barn 'four centuries old' and the timeless rhythms of shearing and harvest.
Shaston
(Shaftesbury)
The ancient hill-town where Sue Bridehead lived, with its steep streets and views across three counties.
Mellstock
(Stinsford)
Hardy's own parish, where his heart is buried beside Emma's grave in St Michael's churchyard.
Little Hintock
(Near Melbury Osmund)
Deep in the woodlands, where trees and cider-making shaped lives as surely as any passion.
Sandbourne
(Bournemouth)
The new seaside resort, symbol of modernity against Wessex's ancient rhythms, where Tess found her tragic end.
Port Bredy
(Bridport)
The coastal town with its rope-walks and harbor, gateway to the sea and the wider world beyond Wessex.
Budmouth
(Weymouth)
The fashionable watering-place where King George III once bathed and soldiers drilled against Napoleon's threat.
Kingsbere
(Bere Regis)
Where the d'Urberville tombs lay in the old church, and Tess discovered her family's vanished glory.
Marygreen
(Fawley)
Jude's village, where the well-cover still bears the scratched letters of a boy dreaming of learning.
Creating Wessex
The name first appeared in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), reviving the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that once covered southwestern England. Hardy drew detailed maps, correlated his fictional places with real ones, and over twenty years developed a complete geography that readers could (and did) trace on foot.
"I considered that our family had been associated with the district for upwards of two hundred years... I thought I might settle down there and write, using the local names, traditions, and landmarks."