Dorset — a dream county

This is Thomas Hardy country, the real heart of Wessex, where the 19th century author set all his major novels.
Shame that today there was a mist hanging over the coast, because this spot on the rolling hills of Dorset affords one of the most magnificent views across the Hardy countryside to the coast.
Though only a few miles from the county town of Dorchester and high above the quaint villages of Maiden Newton and Toller Pocorum this spot is renowned for walkers and tourists, because of the sheer beauty of the countryside unfolding below.
On a clear day, they say you can see across the countryside and bay to Torbay and Torquay, 70 miles away and at least an hour and 40 minutes drive.
It was Thomas Hardy who named the area Wessex, although few can strictly define what area that is. At one time it expanded from this immediate area of the south west around Dorchester and Hardy’s home town to include the adjoining counties. This harked back to medieval times when Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom before the days of the Norman conquest.
Today once again we think of it more as embracing the area of Dorset where the novelist lived and his books centred on the fictional town of Casterbridge — in reality Dorchester.
In one of his books he described the county as a “realistic dream country.”

Mist over the sea and the horizon today maybe, but dream country it certainly is.