Colliton House, Dorchester
Source of photograph: The Mayor of Casterbridge in the Anniversary Edition of the Wessex Novels, 1920, facing p. 158.
According to the editors, many of whose remarks seem based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1913) by Herbert Lea, "High Place Hall, [Casterbridge], which Lucetta Templeman leases, was apparently drawn from this building. 'The Hall, with its gray facade and parapet. . . was entirely of stone . . . its rooms overlooked the market-place.' An interesting and curious feature is the bricked-up doorway in the wall and the mask which adorns the keystone [now on display in the Dorset County Museum on the main floor is the entire wall, saved when the house was torn down]."
Photograph and text 2002 by Philip V. Allingham