HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO2040 6/19/02 "TESS ON EGGERTON HILL QUESTION" =================================================================== From: Jolyon Jenkins Subject: Eggerton Hill and Tess Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:56:17 +0100 A correspondent refers me to "the description of Tess on Eggardon Hill". Does Eggardon Hill actually appear in disguise in Tess? If not, what could he be referring to? Jolyon Jenkins jolyon.jenkins@bbc.co.uk This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system, do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it and notify the sender immediately. Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received. Further communication will signify your consent to this. ========== From: "harrybatt" Cc: "John Bridell" Subject: Ms Jenkins @ bbc Enquiry Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 12:34:17 -0500 As to the enquiry of Ms Jenkins, I have responded that Eggardon Hill does not appear in the text of Tess so far as I recall. Ms Jenkins wondered if Hardy made a reference to Tess on ANY hill. Here is my reply: I fear that the reference to Tess on a hill is found in Chapter 44. Tess travels "aux pieds" to visit herself upon the inlaws, Rev and Mrs. Clare at Beaminster [Emminster]. She made quite a walk stretching from tiny Plush [? Flintcomb-Ash], arriving at Evershot [Evershead] in the morning for breakfast, thence on to Beaminster where Rev Claire's vicarage was located. That is yet the hilly countryside, those "chalky hogsbacks" --collinee in France -- and the vicarage is located at the summit of a hill, as we see by the following evidence: "Only one person had preceded Tess up the hill--a lady like young woman . . . " "Tess beat up the long hill still faster; but she could not outwalk them without exciting notice." [several paragraphs beyond] "They soon reached the summit of the hill . . . to the gate whereat Tess had paused an hour before that time to reconnoitre the town before descending into it." Tess gives up her intention to visit the Clares. She turns about and makes her way from Emminster: "She did not enter any house till, at the seventh or eighth mile, she descended the steep long hill below which lay the village or townlet of Evershead, where in the morning she had breakfasted . . ." These references don't explain Eggardon Hill in context, but they do identify that hilly countryside north and west of Dorchester. I can only suggest that those were mighty strong-limbed ladies who walked about the lanes of Dorset. /s/John Bridell, Minneapolis as ========== Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 14:25:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Andrew Hewitt Subject: Re: Ms Jenkins @ bbc Enquiry >>Ms Jenkins wondered if Hardy made a reference to Tess on ANY hill. Tess walks almost everywhere and of necessity goes up and down plenty of hills. For example, not long after the aborted trip to Beaminster she walks home "ascending and descending till she came to Bulbarrow", where she looks down into the Vale of her birth. I'm not sure what the enquiry was about but if you are looking to test yourself against the sturdy walkers of Hardy's Wessex, Bulbarrow is the place! ==========