Hardy’s Life

Abstract

1840 Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June in the house at Higher Bockhampton which was built for his grandfather ‘Thomas the First in 1801. The fortunes of the Hardys, who had owned extensive properties in Dorset, had declined; yet, among the collateral descendants of the Hardys who had first settled in England from Jersey centuries earlier, there was one who was famous. This was Admiral Hardy, who had been captain of Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, and whose monument on Blackdown was something more than a landmark for Thomas as he left the Higher Bockhampton lane to follow the track across Kingston eweleaze for Stinsford or Dorchester on numerous occasions from 1849 to 1862 and later.