The Old Manor House on the Kingston Maurward estate. Late Elizabethan; restored 1968. The Old Manor House sits a half-a-mile away from Kingston Maurward House, a new Palladian mansion, on the same estate. The grounds and lands around and both buildigs afforded Hardy plenty of scenic material for his fictional backdrops, such as the old fingerpost in the Eweleaze. The much newer, more elegant Portland-stone-surfaced Kingston Maurward House (called "Knapwater House" in Hardy's works) is now the Dorset College of Agriculture, formerly the Dorset Farm Institute; its chatelaine in Desperate Remedies is Miss Aldclyffe, her steward, Æneas Manston occupying the nearby Old Manor House.

Photograph and commentary by Philip V. Allingham 2008. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL.]


Last modified 21 September 2008