HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0042 5/12/00 "HARDY AND THE ISLES OF SCILLY QUESTION" ============================================================== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: TH & the Isles of Scilly Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 09:52:19 +0100 I have asked this question before, but at the end of a longer message, so it may have been overlooked. Did Thomas Hardy ever visit the Isles of Scilly? And if so, when? His story 'A Mere Interlude' centres around Penzance and the Isles of Scilly (which Hardy renames 'Penzephyr' and 'Lyonnesse') and he writes as though he had some knowledge, at least of the island of St. Mary's. Also, am I right in thinking that Hardy did not usually write about places he had not been to? Thanking you all in anticipation. Patrick Roper ========== From: Martin Ray Sender: enl090@abdn.ac.uk Subject: Re: TH & the Isles of Scilly When I was writing on 'A Mere Interlude', I could not find any evidence that Hardy had been to the Isles of Scilly or Penzance, although he clearly was familiar with the latter at least, both at the time of writing the story and when revising it in 1913. For instance, he introduced a reference to 'the town gardens', which had opened four years after the story was originally written in 1885. Incidentally, this story seems to be Hardy's only Cornish setting, either in prose or verse, which is not associated with Emma, and it takes place further west than any of the other 'Off-Wessex' locations. Regards Martin -- Dr Martin Ray Department of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ==========