[Hardy-l] Woodlands in "The Woodlanders"

[Rosemarie Morgan]

--  Interesting snippet, Tony, in light of endogamous practices in some 
Dorset villages. With apologies to my many friends in the Purbeck 
stone-quarry area of Langton & Worth Matravers, "history" tells us that 
endogamy was practised for so long in these villages, due to some vendetta 
between the two communities, that prolonged inbreeding led to homozygosity 
of the population.

Perhaps this is what Lea witnessed in the "region of decay and decline"? 
Maybe this is also an unspoken factor in Melbury's desire to have his 
daughter wed the local woodsman, Giles -- whose last name, Winterborne, the 
name of a local river, indicates he is indigenous. This is pure speculation 
of course but these issues would have been well-known to Hardy and should 
they form a silent narrative to the novel his characterisation of Melbury's 
"recessive" tendencies would be compounded. Theoretically, the outsider, 
Fitzpiers would have strengthened the heterozygosity of the population.
Best
Rosemarie

>'a region inhabited by simple-minded people where many old-fashioned ideas 
>& superstitions still linger    ... a region of decay & decline' ? (p 69).
>Tony Fincham