Thomas Hardy's Dorchester: The Hangman's Cottage

The Hangman's Cottage, down by the river in Dorchester (Hardy's 'Casterbridge') looked especially eerie at sundown when I went looking for it.

Have just read on the Internet that as a boy, Hardy was fascinated by the role of the hangman, and that many years later, he recalled peeping through the cottage window seeing the hangman eat a meal on the eve of an execution.

Of course, the Hangman's Cottage relates to Hardy's truly dark and macabre short story, 'The Withered Arm', from the 'Wessex Tales' collection (for me, only 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' from Hardy's short story collection, 'A Group of Noble Dames' can rival 'The Withered Arm' for pure horror).