Max Gate
Encyclopedia
Max Gate is the former home of Thomas Hardy
and is located in Dorchester, Dorset
, England
.
Hardy designed and lived in Max Gate from 1885 until his death in 1928. It was here that he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles
, Jude the Obscure
and The Mayor of Casterbridge
, as well as much of his poetry
.
Max Gate is now owned by the National Trust
. The house contains several pieces of Hardy's furniture
, although his study has been relocated to the Dorset County Museum
.
Half of the 100m diameter Neolithic
interrupted ditch enclosure Flagstones
is under the grounds of Max Gate; the other half was archaeologically excavated in 1987 prior to the construction of the Dorchetser bypass.
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
and is located in Dorchester, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Hardy designed and lived in Max Gate from 1885 until his death in 1928. It was here that he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...
, Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure, the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, began as a magazine serial and was first published in book form in 1895. The book was burned publicly by William Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, in that same year. Its hero, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man who dreams of becoming a...
and The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge , subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character", is a tragic novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge . The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England...
, as well as much of his poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
.
Max Gate is now owned by the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. The house contains several pieces of Hardy's furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
, although his study has been relocated to the Dorset County Museum
Dorset County Museum
The Dorset County Museum is located in Dorchester, Dorset, England. Founded in 1846, the museum covers the county of Dorset's history and environment. The current building was built in 1881 on the former site of the George Inn...
.
Half of the 100m diameter Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
interrupted ditch enclosure Flagstones
Flagstones
Flagstones is a late Neolithic interrupted ditch enclosure in the English county of Dorset. The enclosure is formed by a ring of pits dug into the chalk bedrock, with 'causeways' between the pits. Half of the enclosure was discovered beneath the site of the demolished Flagstones House in advance...
is under the grounds of Max Gate; the other half was archaeologically excavated in 1987 prior to the construction of the Dorchetser bypass.