HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01051 5/22/01 "MAX GATE'S TREES" ======================================================== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: Hardyan groves Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 13:11:46 +0100 I have not been to Max Gate but I understand it is/was surrounded by trees and therefore 'gloomy'. I was reminded of this when reading about Yewsholt Lodge in the story of Barabara of the House of Grebe from A Group of Noble Dames. This is described by Hardy thus: ãIt stood on a slope so solitary, and surrounded by trees so dense, that the birds who inhabited the boughs sang at strange hours, as if they hardly could distinguish night from day.ä I always assumed that TH was simply interested in privacy at Max Gate, but is there rather more to his interest in these dense, evergreen surroundings? Groves were, of course, of great spiritual significance both in the Classical and ancient Celtic world and Hardy undoubtedly knew this but, apart from the aforementioned interest in privacy, did thick stands of trees simply remind him of his childhood home? Or can subscribers suggest some other explanation? Patrick Roper ========== Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 08:59:01 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Hardyan groves Patrick-- this is a contemporary description of the house at Max Gate. In its original form the house itself doesn't appear to be enclosed by trees: A visitor to Max Gate in 1886 gives the following description: 'The house that is, from its position, almost the first object in the neighbourhood to catch the sun's morning rays, and the last to relinquish the evening glow, is approached·along the Wareham road across an open down. From this side the building appears as an unpretending red-brick structure of moderate size, somewhat quaintly built, and standing in a garden which is divided from the upland without by an enclosing wall·The place is as lonely as it is elevated; it is evident that from the narrow windows of a turret which rises at the salient angle an extensive view of the surrounding country may be obtained. 'From the white entrance gate in the wall a short drive, planted on the windward side with beech and sycamore, leads up to the house, arrivals being notified to the inmates by the voice of a glossy black setter [Moss], who comes into view from the stable at the back as far as his chain will allow him. Within, we find ourselves in a small square hall, floored with dark polished wood, and resembling rather a cosy sitting room with a staircase in it than a hall as commonly understood. It is lighted by a window of leaded panes, through which may be seen Conygar Hill, Came Plantation, and the elvated sea-mark of Culliford Tree.' (Life, 173) -----Rosemarie ========== Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 09:17:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Andrew Hewitt Subject: Re: Hardyan groves My father's childhood home in this part of the world had several large trees strategically planted by the wall of the larder. Though they made the garden somewhat gloomy, their shade helped keep the larder cool, and the person who planted them was deemed to have had considerable foresight. (Then electricity came along.) I have heard an architect describe the layout and dimensions of Max Gate as surprisingly impractical, given Hardy's background and the fact that he had plenty of time to think about his dream house. I can't now remember why. Personally I thought it was a pretty fine if modest house though I don't know how much it has changed since Hardy lived there. Best wishes Andrew ========== Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 02:12:27 -0500 From: David Havird Subject: Re: Hardyan groves I too had read about the poor design of Max Gate. But when I visited there in '98, the fellow who was living there and who showed us around made a big point of saying how "livable" the house really was. I can't now remember what features he singled out--I seem to recall something unique about the windows--but his point was to challenge conventional wisdom by underscoring his own experience as a tenant. DH David Havird Associate Dean of the College Department of English Centenary College of Louisiana Shreveport, LA 71134-1188 (318) 869-5085 or 5240 ========== From: "Rob Abbott" Subject: Max Gate is not Gloomy Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 21:32:33 +0100 As a recent visitor to Max Gate I would like to finally dispel the myth that it is in anyway gloomy. There are trees admittedly, but they do not prevent that all important light from entering the house. The drawing room in particular has unusually large windows and so is very bright and cheerful. Similarly the room that was Hardy's bedroom has windows on two sides and is bright and sunny. Whatever the cause of Hardy's gloomy pessimism, it cannot be blamed lack of light or poor living conditions! Rob Abbott ========== From: "Martin Hemming" Subject: Re: Hardyan groves Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:29:10 +0100 There seems little doubt that Max Gate was a gloomy place when Hardy lived there. The following accounts, given by people who visited the house or were connected with it, are taken from 'Concerning Thomas Hardy' edited by D F Barber: 'The first requirements of the house were that it should provide peace for creative writing and protection from prying eyes. Henry Hardy and his workmen had orders to build high walls round the property; several thousand trees, mostly pines, were planted to form a wind-break and a screen against sight-seers.' Evelyn L. Evans '... it was always, externally, a dull-spirited house - the solidifaction in brick of Hardy's intermittent mood of hopelessness at the ugliness in life.' May O'Rourke '... Mr Hardy always stopped me cutting trees, He would complain that I was cutting far too much and opening up the house to the eyes of the public. He did not like the outside world and wanted to be hidden from it. He was happiest when the trees were thick and tall, casing him in with their greenery.' Bertie Norman Stevens, Hardy's gardener 'One great advantage of the trees at Max Gate was that they clustered around it so effacingly that tourists in the road outside could see little more than a chimney or a gable.' May O'Rourke Martin Hemming ========== Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:02:53 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Hardyan groves Was Max Gate hit by a tornado? (there are no "high walls [&] several thousand trees..." today) No doubt one man's privacy & "peace for creative writing" is another man's "gloom" (thank goodness the "other man" wasn't Hardy). Rosemarie Morgan PS Just curious: "creative writing" is a late 20th century coinage. Does Evans actually claim to have been a TH contemporary? ========== From: "Rob Abbott" Subject: RE: Hardyan groves Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:14:02 +0100 It is true that there are trees around Max Gate and they do protect it from prying visitors but they are not right up against the house and don't throw any gloomy shadows over it. There is also a wall but it is some distance from a the house. I didn't find it at all a "dull-spirited house", either inside or out. It is possible to be hidden without being over-whelmed. Surely? Rob Abbott ========== Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 10:13:39 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Hardyan Groves We might do well to reread Michael Millgate's account in his Biography of Hardy's prolific tree planting: "Although the extensive planting of Austrian pines was undertaken for climactic protection, and secondly, for privacy, Hardy deliberately sought to include within the one and a half acres of his property a wide variety of characteristic English trees and shrubs. He began with a list of possibilities . . . among them yew, double-blossom elder, and apple on quince stock, and the garden still contains examples, not only of the familiar trees of the Dorset countryside but also of walnut, holly, wych elm, and spindle. the surviving fruit trees are similarly various . . . (258-259). Milgate continues: "Although Max Gate became a dark house as a consequence of the unchecked growth of the surrounding trees, Hardy originally designed it to be--what it has now again become--a house full of light (260). In the poem "The House of Silence" Hardy envisages a dialogue between a poet (presumably himself) and a child who lacks the visionary powers of the seer "to pierce the material screen." There are two references to Max Gate's trees in this poem: 'That is a quiet place -- That house in the trees with the shady lawn" (1-2. and: ' . . . Nobody moves about the green, Or wanders the heavy trees between" (8-9). The major point of the poem is that, although it seems that nothing much is going on in the silent house in the midst of "those funereal shades" it is in fact "a poet's bower" teeming with the creative energy of "a brain" that "spins there till dawn." Betty Cortus ===========