The Crown, Crown Road, Marnhull, Dorset. DT10 1LN Tel: 01258 820224 Email: info@thecrownatmarnhull.co.uk Web by: www.sharpimages.co.uk
The Crown Inn is operated by resident Directors Philip Scott and Gemma Watts. Pure Drop Inn Ltd.
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The Thomas Hardy Connection
The Crown at Marnhull features in Thomas Hardy’s most successful novel ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ as the ‘Pure Drop Inn’. This is where Tess’s father invites parson Tringham for a quart of beer: “There’s a pretty brew in tap at The Pure Drop but not so good as at Rollivers.” The latter was an off licence, selling beer brewed at the village brewery.
Hardy’s “Wessex” included most of Southwest England but most of his stories are set in “South Wessex” i.e Dorset. He used his own nomenclature for many of the towns and villages. Casterbridge is Dorchester where Michael Henchard is mayor. Sandbourne is Bournemouth where Tess murders Alec. Mellstock is Stinsford the village of Hardy’s birth where his father played the fiddle in the church band. The Mellstock band features in “Under the Greenwood Tree” “Marlott” as Hardy calls Marnhull, “lies in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, a fertile and sheltered tract of country in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry.”
Thomas Hardy was the eldest of four children: he was the only one to marry. His two sisters both became teachers and his brother followed the family tradition by becoming a mason/builder. Hardy and his first wife Emma were passionate about cycling; they cycled all over Dorset and beyond. With his second wife Florence, Hardy would hire an open-top car and driver to take them on trips round Dorset but Hardy would not allow it to exceed twenty five miles an hour. “Wessex” was the name of the Hardys’ dog which was thoroughly spoilt and bit the postman and all visitors except TE Lawrence. There were no children.
Hardy grew up in a cottage built by his grandfather at Higher Bockhampton, (now National Trust) just outside Dorchester where he attended the local Grammar School. He went on to spend time living in London, until 1873, when he moved back to Dorset for health reasons. Hardy lived for a while at nearby “Stourcastle” i.e Sturminster Newton, but being an architect by training, he and his wife moved into ‘Max Gate’ in Dorchester, (also National Trust), which he designed and his brother built.
Most of Hardy’s novels came out originally in serial form in magazines before being published as books. His last novel ‘Jude the Obscure’ was heavily criticised as obscene and he vowed not to write another novel. After 1895, he stuck to writing poetry until his death in 1928, aged 87. Many critics now regard him as a greater poet than novelist. His pages give prominence to social issues that are still the subject of heated debate: rural depopulation, the industrialisation of agriculture, marriage and divorce, the role of women in society, access to higher education. His work of that time is of vital interest to us now.
The literary establishment wanted Hardy to be buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey but his family thought he should be buried where he was born. A messy compromise was reached: On the 16th January 1928 at two simultaneous funerals, Hardy’s heart was buried in the family grave in Stinsford and his ashes in Poets’ Corner. A local comment was:
..And when the Day of Judgment come, Almighty, ’ell say, “ ‘ere be heart , but where be rest of ‘e? ”
Hardy’s “Wessex” included most of Southwest England but most of his stories are set in “South Wessex” i.e Dorset. He used his own nomenclature for many of the towns and villages. Casterbridge is Dorchester where Michael Henchard is mayor. Sandbourne is Bournemouth where Tess murders Alec. Mellstock is Stinsford the village of Hardy’s birth where his father played the fiddle in the church band. The Mellstock band features in “Under the Greenwood Tree” “Marlott” as Hardy calls Marnhull, “lies in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, a fertile and sheltered tract of country in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry.”
Thomas Hardy was the eldest of four children: he was the only one to marry. His two sisters both became teachers and his brother followed the family tradition by becoming a mason/builder. Hardy and his first wife Emma were passionate about cycling; they cycled all over Dorset and beyond. With his second wife Florence, Hardy would hire an open-
Hardy grew up in a cottage built by his grandfather at Higher Bockhampton, (now National Trust) just outside Dorchester where he attended the local Grammar School. He went on to spend time living in London, until 1873, when he moved back to Dorset for health reasons. Hardy lived for a while at nearby “Stourcastle” i.e Sturminster Newton, but being an architect by training, he and his wife moved into ‘Max Gate’ in Dorchester, (also National Trust), which he designed and his brother built.
Most of Hardy’s novels came out originally in serial form in magazines before being published as books. His last novel ‘Jude the Obscure’ was heavily criticised as obscene and he vowed not to write another novel. After 1895, he stuck to writing poetry until his death in 1928, aged 87. Many critics now regard him as a greater poet than novelist. His pages give prominence to social issues that are still the subject of heated debate: rural depopulation, the industrialisation of agriculture, marriage and divorce, the role of women in society, access to higher education. His work of that time is of vital interest to us now.
The literary establishment wanted Hardy to be buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey but his family thought he should be buried where he was born. A messy compromise was reached: On the 16th January 1928 at two simultaneous funerals, Hardy’s heart was buried in the family grave in Stinsford and his ashes in Poets’ Corner. A local comment was:
..And when the Day of Judgment come, Almighty, ’ell say, “ ‘ere be heart , but where be rest of ‘e? ”