BleakChesneyWold

                             The Thomas Hardy Connection?                                     Image: courtesy of  Shire Hall Museum (Dorchester) and Folio Creative (photographer) . Thomas Hardy 'Tess of the d'Urbevilles' (1891)  ends with the its tragic heroine being hanged for the murder of Alex d'Urbeville, a former lover. Hardy did not depict the trial or the execution of Tess in the novel, a black flag is hoisted above the prison at Wintoncester ( Winchester)  to show that the deed was done in the very last pages of the book. We learn that ' Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals, ....had ended his sport with Tess.  At the age of 16,Hardy was a witness to the hanging of (Elizabeth) Martha Brown on 9th August 1856, who had been tried at the law court in Dorchester on 21st July 1856 and found guilty of the murder of her husband John.  (The building is now open to the public as the excellent   Shire Hall museum  and a commentary on the trial is o