After visiting Puddletown, I followed a road round to Athelhampton Hall where (I've just read that) Thomas Hardy's father worked as a stonemason, with Hardy himself having visited the place often, even painting a watercolour of it.
Have also just seen that Hardy wrote a poem called 'The Dame of Athelhall' set at Athelhampton Hall. Will have to give this a read, I think.
More interesting for me, I've just read that Hardy himself participated in the building of St. John's Anglican church (now an Orthodox church) which I passed near Athelhampton Hall:
This is an interesting juxtaposition for me, as Thomas Hardy is probably my favourite writer (just edging out DH Lawrence) and was an agnostic (albeit with an incredible knowledge of 'The Bible'), while Eastern Orthodoxy is one of the two forms of Christianity that I deeply respect, the other being pre-Vatican II Catholicism.
No comments:
Post a Comment