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THE THOMAS HARDY VICTORIAN FAIR TheThe of the VitiansVitians archaeology astronomy evolution phrenology AchaeologMaumbury Rings • Maiden Castle • Max Gate ARDY was fascinated by the different layers of hist- ory in Dorchester. He often features these layers in his Hbook, whether through ghostly sightings of Roman fans in the old roman amphitheatre of Maumbury Rings or recalling illicit archaeological digs on Maiden Castle. Here are a few of the links between Hardy and the archaeology under our very feet… Casterbridge announced old Rome in every street, alley, and precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome. It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the Southern Face of Maiden Castle, Dorset by Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953) © Dorset Museum town, fields and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other Photo credit: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society of the Empire. Mayor of Casterbridge Romano British relics pamphlet © Dorset Museum AUMBURY Rings circle was the frequent spot for At one’s every step forward it rises was the old amphi- appointments of a furtive kind. higher against the south sky, with Mtheatre of the Ro- Mayor of Casterbridge an obtrusive personality that man town of Durnovaria. It is compels the senses to regard it the largest earth amphitheatre AIDEN Castle is and consider. The eyes may bend in the UK. When Hardy was the largest hillfort in another direction, but never alive, evidence could still be Min Europe. It was without the consciousness of its seen of the wild animal pits built by the Durotriges but heavy, high-shouldered presence under the entrance. the Romans later built a at its point of vantage. Across the The new railways threat- temple on it. intervening levels the gale races ened its very existence in In Hardy’s short story ‘A in a straight line from the fort, as the 1840s, but the people of Tryst at an Ancient Earth- if breathed out of it hitherward. Dorchester rallied around it. works’, the writer remem- With the shifting of the clouds the Maumbury Rings became the bers meeting an archaeologist faces of the steeps vary in colour first ancient monument to be there on a dark and stormy and in shade, broad lights ap- saved from demolition by the night. Secretly they dig at pearing where mist and vague- railways due to public protest. the site of the roman temple ness had prevailed, dissolving in and find a statue of Mercury. their turn into melancholy gray, It was to Casterbridge what the Instead of turning it in to the which spreads over and eclipses ruined Coliseum is to modern authorities the archaeologist the luminous bluffs. In this so- Rome… Melancholy, impressive, keeps it for himself. Could thought immutable spectacle all Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, Dorset, 1924 by John Everett (1876-1949) © Dorset Museum Photo credit: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society lonely, yet accessible from every this be a true story or just is change. part of the town, the historic fiction? Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork 2 Thomas Hardy Victorian Fair ~ The Science of the Victorians Thomas Hardy with The Druid Stone ARDY built his house at Max Gate c.1885 © Dorset Museum Max Gate on heathland Houtside of Dorchester. As they built, they discovered that the site had been a henge, now known as Flagstones. Dur- ing building work, they found a large sarsen stone, which Hardy erected in his garden and called The Druid Stone. They also found some Romano-British pots and clothing fasteners. Hardy was a member of the Romano-British bowls found by Hardy © Dorset Museum Dorset Natural History and An- tiquarian Field Club. He wrote up his findings in a small book- let (pictured). These fascinating objects will be on display in the Wessex Museums’ Thomas Hardy exhibition 28 May – 30 October 2022. The exhibition is spread across Dorset Muse- Manuscript for ‘The um, Poole Museum, The Salis- Clasped Skeletons’ bury Museum and Wiltshire Roman-British fibular and annular by Thomas Hardy brooches found by Hardy © Dorset Museum © Dorset Museum Museum. Aye, even before the beauteous Jael Cleopatra with Antony, So long, beyond chronology, The Clasped Skeletons Bade Sisera doff his gear Resigned to dalliance sheer, Lovers in death as ’twere, Surmised Date 1800 B.C. (In an Ancient And lie in her tent; then drove the nail, Lay, fatuous he, insatiate she, So long in placid dignity British barrow near the writer’s house) You two lay here. Long after you’d lain here. Have you lain here! why did we uncover to view Wicked Aholah, in her youth, Pilate by Procula his wife Yet what is length of time? But dream! O So closely clasped a pair? Colled loves from far and near Lay tossing at her tear Once breathed this atmosphere Your chalky bedclothes over you, Until they slew her without ruth; Of pleading for an innocent life; Those fossils near you, met the gleam This long time here! But you had long colled here. You tossed not here. Of day as you did here; Ere Paris lay with Helena – Aspasia lay with Pericles, Ages before Monk Abélard But so far earlier theirs beside The poets’ dearest dear – And Philip’s son found cheer Gained tender Héloïse’ ear, Your life-span and career, Ere David bedded Bathsheba At eves in lying on Thais’ knees And loved and lay with her till scarred, That they might style of yestertide You two were bedded here. While you lay here. Had you lain loving here. Your coming here! 3 Thomas Hardy Victorian Fair ~ The Science of the Victorians Astonom ORSET’S dark night’s and relative lack of light pollution make it a great place to look up at the stars. DWhether you are a romantic who likes wishing on shooting stars, or you prefer to muse on the infinity of space-time as you look up. Hardy did both. Here are a few of our favourite starry quotes from Hardy… The sky was clear - remarkably ble. The sovereign brilliance of clear - and the twinkling of all Sirius pierced the eye with a steel the stars seemed to be but throbs glitter, the star called Capella of one body timed by a common was yellow, and Aldebaran and pulse. Betelgeuse shone with a fiery red. Far from the Madding Crowd Far from the Madding Crowd The silver and black-stemmed ARDY’S birches with their characteris- novel Two tic tufts, the pale grey boughs of Hon a Tower beech, the dark-creviced elm, all is all about a young appeared now as black and flat astronomer. He is outlines upon the sky, where- allowed to carry out his in the white stars twinkled so work at Charborough vehemently that their flickering House, where he has seemed like the flapping of wings. an affair with the own- Under the Greenwood Tree er. The tower that his observatory is based on But behind these beautiful can still be seen on the descriptions, Hardy was really horizon on the right, into the science of the stars, from the A31 heading too. Here he talks about the East between Bere Regis different colours of the stars, and Wimborne. now known to be because Hardy researched his of their different heats and astronomy carefully for places on the star’s life cycle: the book. Right, is a picture of the letter that Letter from Thomas Hardy to E A difference in colour of the stars he sent to The Royal Ob- Dunkin at The Royal Observatory (27th November, 1881) © Dorset Museum. Held at Charborough Tower, Dorset, 1924 by - oftener read of than seen in servatory, asking for help with Dorset History Centre, H.5043b. John Everett (1876-1949) © Dorset Museum England - was readily percepti- his research. 4 Thomas Hardy Victorian Fair ~ The Science of the Victorians ARDY also uses the Until a person has thought out URING Hardy’s stars to think about the stars and their inter-spaces, lifetime, there were I stayed here till it was dark, and the stars came out, Hhow small people he has hardly learnt that there Dhuge advances in sci- and that night I resolved to be an astronomer. are in terms of the vastness are things much more terrible entific thinking. In 1905, Al- Though called a fixed star, it is, like all fixed stars, moving of the universe. This can be a than monsters of shape, namely, bert Einstein published The with inconceivable velocity; but no magnifying will show that really terrifying thought. monsters of magnitude without Theory of Relativity. Space- velocity as anything but rest.’ known shape. Such monsters are time and relativity suddenly ‘I think astronomy is a bad study the voids and waste places of the became new ideas for He asked her how many stars she for you. It makes you feel sky. non-scientists to play with. thought were visible to them at human insignificance Two on a Tower Dorset County Museum that moment. too plainly.’ still has Hardy’s copy of She looked around over the “Did you say the stars were Einstein’s book, which he magnificent stretch of sky worlds, Tess?” read in his 60s. that their high position “Yes.” unfolded. ‘Oh, thou- “All like ours?” These fascinating objects sands, hundreds of “I don’t know, but I think so. will be on display in the thousands,’ she said They sometimes seem to be like Wessex Museums’ Thomas absently. the apples on our stubbard-tree. Hardy exhibition 28 May ‘No. There are Most of them splendid and sound – 30 October 2022.

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