After a night sleeping under the stars somewhere between Thomas Hardy's childhood/young adulthood church at Stinsford and his childhood/young adulthood home at Higher Bockhampton, I made my way to the latter quite early in the morning.
Hardy's Higher Bockhampton cottage is a few minutes walk up from the visitors' centre (where I got a delicious breakfast with vegetarian sausages) through wooded land:
Near the Hardy cottage, I came across the small monument in Hardy's honour below which was erected by some American admirers in 1931:
The monument reveals that Hardy wrote both 'Under the Greenwood Tree' and 'Far from the Madding Crowd' while still living at the Higher Bockhampton cottage.
Unfortunately, it was a Tuesday and the Hardy cottage was not open for viewing, so, at first, I struggled to glimpse it through the dense foliage:
But eventually my camera managed to zoom in on the front of it:
And I could walk past the back of it:
Still, I would have to visit the cottage later in the week to get inside the place.
Have just read in J.B. Bullen's 'Thomas Hardy: The World of His Novels' that the Higher Bockhampton cottage represents the model for the Yeobright home in 'The Return of the Native'. Just wish I'd read this incredible book and Margaret Marande's 'The Hardy Way: a 19th Century Pilgrimage' before setting out on my journey into Hardy country.
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