Visiting The Graves Of Thomas Hardy & T.E Lawrence.

It was a nice day yesterday, so me and a friend of mine decided to go exploring. I thought it would be interesting to see if we could find the graves of some more famous people. We headed for the tiny village of Stinsford on the outskirts of Dorchester where I heard the heart of the great writer Thomas Hardy was buried. It did not take long to get there as Dorchester is only 53 miles south of Westbury. I will just tell you a grisly story I read about the heart of Thomas Hardy. It was his wish to be buried in the churchyard at Stinsford because that was the church in which he was baptised in 1840. His first wife Emma was already buried there. 

Under The Greenwood Tree.

Hardy lived at nearby Max Gate with his second wife Florence where he died in 1928. Because of his great novels, Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Jude The Obscure, The Mayor Of Casterbridge and many more, as well as his poetry, his reputation was almost as great as Charles Dickens. The nation felt that he should be buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. A compromise was reached to keep everybody happy. His heart would be removed and buried at Stinsford and then he would be cremated, and his ashes interred in Westminster Abbey. 

Hardy's window.

This is where we get to the macabre bit. A doctor was called to his house where his body lay, and he performed the quite simple operation of removing the heart which was placed in a dish in the room. Mrs Hardy offered the doctor a glass of sherry in gratitude, and they retired to the drawing room for a few minutes to talk. Now, Thomas Hardy had a favourite cat called Cobby who entered the empty room where Hardy lay, discovered his heart, and promptly ate most of it. Minutes later Mrs Hardy found the horrific scene. The story goes that the cat was immediately destroyed and allegedly was buried in the churchyard. It is said that many people remarked on the sudden disappearance of Cobby after Hardy’s death.

C Day-Lewis

My personal view is the story is a myth that was probably invented in a Dorchester tavern one night and the story spread. There is one thing that I find strange though. During my research I found some footage of the internment of Hardy’s heart. (I have shared it to this blog page if you want to see it) A man’s heart is roughly the size of a large apple, it would easily fit in a box about four inches square. The casket the priest is carrying to the grave is large enough to contain a cat!. Why put his heart in a box that big? It makes one wonder. Anyway, We found the picturesque little church at Stinsford quite easily and it only took about two minutes to locate the grave which was in between those of Emma and Florence. They lie there peacefully in the shade of an old tree. I wonder if it is the tree referred to in his novel Under The Greenwood Tree because that book is set in the village of Mellstock which was Hardy’s fictionalisation of Stinsford. The tree would definitely have been there during his lifetime. Inside the church we found an amazing stained glass window memorial to Hardy. Also, just a few yards away from Hardy we found the last resting place of Cecil Day-Lewis who was the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He was also the father of the great actor Daniel Day-Lewis. He was a great admirer of Thomas Hardy and it was his request to be buried in the same place.

Me & T.E. Lawrence.

From Stinsford we drove on to the nearby village of Moreton where we found the grave of T.E. Lawrence who many people know better as Lawrence Of Arabia. He was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident near here in 1935. Apparently, there is a roadside memorial marking the spot where he died, but we did not find that. He lived nearby in a tiny cottage called Clouds Hill which his brother donated to the National Trust. Mourners at his funeral in 1935 included Winston Churchill, E. M. Forster and Lady Astor. Next to the quiet plot where Lawrence is buried, we found a walled garden which is a beautiful place with ponds and all kinds of exotic plants and trees and modern sculptures, and a nice café where had a cup of tea. Well worth a visit if you are ever in Moreton.

Approaching Lulworth Cove.

After that we had enough of history and culture for one day and decided to head for Lulworth Cove. The plan was to hopefully find a nice pub or a fish and chip restaurant for a spot of lunch. When we got there though it was apparent that everyone in Britain seemed to have the same idea. Because of the nice weather, school half-term holidays, and the fact that because of Covid nobody goes abroad anymore, the place was jammed. We took one look at the packed carpark and decided to be far from the madding crowd. 

Compton Abbas.

We headed towards home and near Shaftesbury stopped at Compton Abbas airfield. This is a tiny little airfield for light aircraft. It also has a café, so we had a bite to eat while watching the planes landing and taking off which was quite good fun. We finally got back to Westbury by 5.00, in time for a couple of well deserved pints in The Crown. I must say after a year of not going anywhere it is nice to be able to get out again.

Thomas Hardy Funeral (1928)

Free by Iggy Pop

I have known about Iggy Pop since the 1970s, but never had any interest in listening to his music, not even when he was associated with David Bowie who I admired a lot. I thought Iggy was a bit of a lunatic who became famous due mainly to his crazy antics on stage. However, In recent years I have grown to like him as a person, mainly due to his excellent radio show on Friday evenings on BBC 6Music. Iggy has played some great music that I would never have got to hear only for him. He also has a great voice for radio. I rate him alongside Bob Dylan as a musician who has tried his hand at radio presenting. I still do not think I would have gone so far as to buy an album by Iggy though. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine Colin who is a huge fan of Iggy Pop and has most of his work gave me a copy of Iggy’s most recent album called Free. Colin had discovered that he had accidentally bought it twice. I played it for the first-time last week when me and Curly went out for the day. I really liked it. The album is nothing like what I had expected from Iggy Pop. I have been playing it again this morning, so I thought I would tell you about it.

It is called Free because that is how Iggy wanted to feel. He was feeling drained from touring and wanted to get away from what was expected of him. As a fan of other people’s music, he wanted guitarscapes instead of riffs, and wanted space in his music. Also, he wanted to get away from the ‘effluent of his own mind’ and interpret the poetry of others. Iggy only contributes towards the composition of three tracks on this album, but it is his vocals throughout. The principal collaborators are Leron Thomas whose trumpet playing, and keyboards are a dominant sound and guitarist Sarah Lipstate whose professional name is Noveller. The title track Free opens the album with just Iggy’s great vocals accompanied by trumpet and a dreamy soundscape of guitars. Love’s Missing was written by Iggy and Leron and features bass and guitar by Aaron Nevezie and Chris Berry on drums. The next track is called Sonali. I did not know what that meant, so I looked it up and it is a Bengali girl’s name. This track is awash with piano and synthesisers by Kenny Ruby. The bass of Robin Sherman introduces James Bond, the catchiest of all these songs and the lyrics are quite humorous. It was released as a single I believe. The trumpet introduction to Dirty Sanchez gives it the feel of a spaghetti western. It is written by Leron Thomas who wrote most of these songs. Glow In The Dark features moog synthesiser and keyboards provided by Florian Pellisier. Page has a more stripped back sound of just Iggy, Aaron and Leron.

Lauren Laverne & Iggy.

The final three tracks are my favourites on this album which develops into a poetry reading with musical accompaniment. We Are The People was written by the late great Lou Reed. Iggy discovered it in a book of Lou’s poetry and related to Lou’s view of their country. It is just Iggy reciting the words, with trumpet and keys. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is arguably the most famous work of Dylan Thomas, published in 1951. Iggy’s reading of it is sublime, and the accompaniment is perfect. The last track is called The Dawn and Iggy himself wrote the words. Because of the subject matter in the lyrics, I wonder if it is his response to the Dylan Thomas poem? I do not know, but the words are great. Iggy is 74 now and this album shows that he has no intention of going gentle into that good night. I am pleased that Colin gave me this CD because I have enjoyed listening to it very much indeed and it has totally changed my view of the one and only Iggy Pop.