[Hardy-l] Re: Hardy-l Digest, Vol 33, Issue 15
Pat Louw
plouw at pan.uzulu.ac.za
Thu Jun 19 01:51:58 PDT 2008
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>Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Woodlands in "The Woodlanders" (Tony Fincham)
> 2. woodlanders historical context (Pat Louw)
> 3. Re: woodlanders historical context (Tony Fincham)
> 4. Re: Woodlands in "The Woodlanders" (Rosemarie Morgan)
> 5. Re: woodlanders historical context (Rosemarie Morgan)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:25:21 +0100
>From: "Tony Fincham" <wessex.heights at virgin.net>
>Subject: Re: [Hardy-l] Woodlands in "The Woodlanders"
>To: <hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu>
>Message-ID: <3520720B330240EAAEF2F03BA4986CBA at UserPC>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
>
>Dear Pat,
>
>I wonder if you have come across the passage in Hermann Lea's 'The Hardy
>Guides Volume I'
>(Ed. Stevens Cox Penguin 1986) in which he describes the Woodlands as:-
>
>'a region inhabited by simple-minded people where many old-fashioned ideas &
>superstitions still linger
> ... a region of decay & decline' ? (p 69).
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Tony Fincham
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Pat Louw" <plouw at pan.uzulu.ac.za>
>To: <hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu>
>Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:57 PM
>Subject: [Hardy-l] Woodlands in "The Woodlanders"
>
>
>
>
>>Does anyone have any information on the specific nineteenth century
>>historical context of the woodlands in "The Woodlanders"? I'm trying to
>>find out how the forest people would have been regarded by the
>>townspeople.
>>
>>Thank you,
>>Pat Louw
>>University of Zululand
>>South Africa
>>
>>--
>>NOTICE: Please note that this e-mail, and the contents
>>thereof, is subject to the standard University of
>>Zululand e-mail disclaimer which may be found at:
>>http://www.ict.uzulu.ac.za/electronic_mail_disclaimer.html
>>
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>>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:38:29 +0200
>From: Pat Louw <plouw at pan.uzulu.ac.za>
>Subject: [Hardy-l] woodlanders historical context
>To: hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
>Message-ID: <4858BB75.4080005 at pan.uzulu.ac.za>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>Thank you very much to Rosemarie Morgan for her useful suggestions and
>references. Much appreciated.
>
>In addition to information about the forest people I was wondering who
>had access to the woodlands in those days. Was the area controlled by
>the State? Or did private businesses have contracts? I am trying to form
>a picture in order to compare it to a South African context and a South
>African novel entitled "Dream Forest" by Dalene Matthee in which she
>writes about a forest community in the Knysna Forest in the Cape in the
>nineteenth century.
>
>Pat Louw
>--
>NOTICE: Please note that this e-mail, and the contents
>thereof, is subject to the standard University of
>Zululand e-mail disclaimer which may be found at:
>http://www.ict.uzulu.ac.za/electronic_mail_disclaimer.html
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 3
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:09:27 +0100
>From: "Tony Fincham" <wessex.heights at virgin.net>
>Subject: Re: [Hardy-l] woodlanders historical context
>To: <hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu>
>Message-ID: <3D19B999088B4B76B298B60E5392211D at UserPC>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
>
>It was all privately owned land as most of it still is today:
>Hardy's Woodlands - stretching South & East from Melbury Osmund
>(the original Great Hintock) would have mainly belonged to the Ilchester
>family of Melbury Park (Great Hintock House).
>
>Even in the 20th & 21st centuries when much of the Woodland is managed
>by the state-sponsored Forestry Commission, most of the woods are still
>privately owned. Puddletown Forest behind Hardy's Birthplace, for instance,
>is managed by The Forestry Commission but still owned by the same
>Ilchester family.
>
>Access would have been on public highways or recognised public footpaths
>(not protected by legislation until 1949). Otherwise much of it would have
>been out-of-bounds for the general population - game stocks being zealously
>guarded by armed game-keepers.
>
>Tony Fincham.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Pat Louw" <plouw at pan.uzulu.ac.za>
>To: <hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:38 AM
>Subject: [Hardy-l] woodlanders historical context
>
>
>
>
>>Thank you very much to Rosemarie Morgan for her useful suggestions and
>>references. Much appreciated.
>>
>>In addition to information about the forest people I was wondering who had
>>access to the woodlands in those days. Was the area controlled by the
>>State? Or did private businesses have contracts? I am trying to form a
>>picture in order to compare it to a South African context and a South
>>African novel entitled "Dream Forest" by Dalene Matthee in which she
>>writes about a forest community in the Knysna Forest in the Cape in the
>>nineteenth century.
>>
>>Pat Louw
>>--
>>NOTICE: Please note that this e-mail, and the contents
>>thereof, is subject to the standard University of
>>Zululand e-mail disclaimer which may be found at:
>>http://www.ict.uzulu.ac.za/electronic_mail_disclaimer.html
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Hardy-l mailing list
>>Hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
>>http://coyote.csusm.edu/mailman/listinfo/hardy-l
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 4
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:30:07 -0500
>From: Rosemarie Morgan <Rosemarie.morgan at yale.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Hardy-l] Woodlands in "The Woodlanders"
>To: hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
>Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20080618080830.0443e710 at rm82.mail.yale.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>-- 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
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 5
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:17:33 -0500
>From: Rosemarie Morgan <Rosemarie.morgan at yale.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Hardy-l] woodlanders historical context
>To: hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
>Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20080618083120.01e35590 at rm82.mail.yale.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>
>
>
>>Was the area controlled by the State?
>>
>>
>
>No --most of Dorset was still manorial and Felice Charmond owned most of
>the "Woodlands'" region. Remember the issue over Giles' lease-renewal?
>
>The Enclosure (Inclosure) Acts of 1750-1860 (amending earlier Acts) gave UK
>Commissioners the right to enclose -- & fully "privatise" -- England's
>open fields and common grazing lands. I say "fully" because these 7 million
>acres of "free" land (approx - at Hardy's time) had always been under
>private (manorial) ownership but included communal rights to freely graze
>cattle and so on. The Enclosure Acts, depriving so-called "peasants" of a
>living, had the effect of driving them to the cities and into the sphere of
>capitalism (see proletariat).
>
>There are vestigial indications of these communal rights today --: for
>example, all people have the right to freely walk/hike/picnic/ride (bridle
>paths) through the entire countryside of Great Britain.
>
> Anyway, although Mrs Charmond owns the local land the Woodlanders have
>fundamental rights (under certain conditions) to occupy them in the sense
>of farming them, planting them and even living on them. The "State" as you
>call it -- which is commonly spoken of as the "government" in Britain --
>would intervene only to pass laws which were, themselves, a reflection of
>the will of the people (democracy) -- although the "people," in Hardy's
>day, were not yet fully enfranchised (women and most low-salaried working
>men, didn't yet have the vote) Hence the "ruling classes" carried sway.
>
>This is a very rough outline, Pat and inevitably inadequate.
>
>Best
>Rosemarie
>
>
>
>>who had access to the woodlands in those days. Was the area controlled by
>>the State? Or did private businesses have contracts?
>>Pat Louw
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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>End of Hardy-l Digest, Vol 33, Issue 15
>***************************************
>
>
>
Many thanks to Tony Fincham and Rosemary Morgan for their most
interesting and informative responses.
Pat Louw
--
NOTICE: Please note that this e-mail, and the contents
thereof, is subject to the standard University of
Zululand e-mail disclaimer which may be found at:
http://www.ict.uzulu.ac.za/electronic_mail_disclaimer.html
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