H04053 AUGUST 2004 NOTES AND QUERIES - 8/9/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES

FLORENCE DUGDALE'S DIARY

HARDY CONFERENCE NOTE

BOSCASTLE FLOODING

NEW MUSIC ITEM

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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk

Subject: Florence Dugdale's diary

Date: August 9, 2004 4:09:53 AM PDT

I expect lots of British subscribers saw it but, on the TV 'Antiques

Roadshow' yesterday evening here in UK, someone brought in Florence

Dugdale's diary for 1917 with, of course, many references to her husband TH,

Emma and so on.

Apparently, though I missed the beginning, this diary has been languishing

in private hands for many years and was not previously known of. It was

rather amazing to see the 'expert' leafing through the pages and the camera

focussing down on various passages that may never have been read since they

were written.

The diary was valued at c. £15,000 so perhaps we can hope its contents will

eventually see the light of day in published form.

Patrick Roper

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From: helengibson@clara.co.uk

Subject: Hardy conference & festival in Dorchester

Date: August 12, 2004 5:06:38 AM PDT

Dear friends,

Just a note to say how delightful it was to meet so many 'Hardy people' from all over the world in Dorchester last week. It was wonderful to see many old friends and to put faces to names of those we knew only by correspondence.

Many people travel considerable distances, and we are so grateful that they do as this makes it a truly international conference, and we locals get a real 'buzz' thinking of this convergence as the registration day approaches! Thank you for coming and for your contributions to the week.

I would like to give particular thanks to members of the TTHA for their kind words and for the beautiful flowers.

With best wishes to all,

Helen

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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu

Subject: Boscastle

Date: August 17, 2004 4:28:41 PM PDT

To our dear friends in Boscastle:

On behalf of The Thomas Hardy Association I'd like to convey our deepest sympathies to you all in your terrible flooding and wreckage of your lovely village and harbour.

Hardy's tribute to this beautiful part of Cornwall is memorialised in his fiction, in *A Pair of Blue Eyes*. Boscastle Harbour is also the subject of Macbeth-Raeburn's frontispiece to *A Pair of Blue Eyes* (Osgood, McIlvaine edition). See TTHA NOVELS page: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ttha/index_of_novels.htm

We send our heartfelt good wishes for a rapid recovery from the loss and devastation you must all be suffering. To see that stout little stone bridge in the town standing up to the raging torrent beneath which swept trees and cars along in its wake, was very moving indeed.

Blessings on you all!

Rosemarie

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From: segr@segr-music.net

Subject: A Song Before Sunrise

Date: August 30, 2004 10:27:12 AM PDT

Greetings Forum subscribers!.

I have just added a new item to the music on my website

which may have some interest for musicians and biographical

puzzlers. To find it (and listen) follow the text of the Latest News

tag.

It is my piano transcription of a composition scored for small orchestra by

Frederick Delius. I do not know whether Hardy was aware

of the composer, or his music, but he certainly knew the poet Swinburne

after whose work the Delius piece appears to have been named.

I venture to suggest that the Delius "Song" conveys some of the

atmosphere one might associate with a Hardy poem.

Perhaps Hardy heard it some time (although Swinburne didn't)?

I, for one, would like to have seen some "Lines to Music by Delius"

written by our favourite spinner of rhymes.

Roy Buckle.

www.segr-music.net

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