Wessex holidays: The joys of exploring the unspoilt landscapes of Hardy country
Advertisement Looking out at a single-track country lane over unspoilt downland, I'm struggling to see any signs of human habitation. And yet I am barely 20 miles south of Oxford, home to 150,000 people. In a memorable scene in Jude The Obscure, the title character of Thomas Hardy's novel has his first sight of the dreaming spires of 'Christminster' (Oxford) from a spot close to where I am parked. Hardy's grandmother lived in the nearby village of Fawley, and the stonemason who dreams of being a scholar is given the surname Fawley in the book. Jude couldn't wait to leave his village and head ...
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