Florence Emily Dugdale

Abstract

In August 1905 Hardy had received a letter from an unknown woman who wished to see him. She had probably expressed admiration of his work and introduced herself as an aspiring writer who had contributed frequently to her local newspaper. Hardy was won by her assurance that she would not take advantage of the interview by publishing an account of it, and answered that he would be at home to her any afternoon of the month provided she made an appointment. The visit must have been postponed until very late in the year, for on 2 January 1906 he wrote, thanking her for the box of flowers she had sent, and assuring her that she had not stayed too long. Years later she said she was taken by a friend and introduced to the Hardys as a distant relative; Hardy did in fact discover a marriage between members of his and her families in the late eighteenth century.