LATE THOMAS HARDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 81, 16 January 1928, Page 5

LATE THOMAS HARDY.

CONTROVERSY OVER BURIAL. DORCHESTER'S CLAIMS. (Per Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, January 13. Dorchester people are surprised at the decision that Thomas Hardy should be buried in Westminster Abbey instead of in his own beloved Dorset. Hardy's brother, sister, and cousin express the opinion that his request to be buried among hie own folk should have been respected. In view of the strength of this feeling locally, the Rector of Stinsford has approached his widow, and suggested that instead of Hardy's memory being perpetuated merely by a tablet, his heart should be buried in StinsTord churchyard. Mrs Hardy gladly consented. Hardy will leave his beloved Wcssex with no pageantry to bid him farewell. At eight on Sunday morning his coffin will be carried from his home and taker direct to Woking, where the body will be cremated, the ashes going thence to Westminster Abbey, to await burial in the Poet's Corner, Bear the grave oi Dickens. The burial of his heart in Wessex effects a compromise dear to the hearts of Dorset people. They felt deeply that an arrangement whereby a writer so peculiarly their own should not rest among them after hLs death, in accord ance with his own wish. x His brother and sister, however, are still convinced that Hardy's spoken and written desire to be buried not further than a few fields from his birthplace should be honoured. Mrs Hardy was entirely with them, and it was only after much perplexed discussion that she decided to allow her husband to be regarded as a national possession. Throughout Dorset the same opinion prevailed. Miss Teresa Hardy,, his sister, who grow up with him and knew him better than anybody else, said, "It is cruel to take Tom away.'? The Mayor of Dorchester says a mistake is being made in removing Hardy. "He was Dorset and it is wrong that he should be taken from Dorset," he says. . The bod> lies to-night in the bedroom which he hvd not left since Christmas, covered with the scarlet robe of a Doctor of Literature of Cambridge, which will be his funeral shroud. On his breast lies the Order of Merit. There has been a "stream of visitorsall day to the remote cottage only a mile away from the spot where Hardy was born, and where he wrote his earliest works.

THE PALL-BEARERS. MANY GREAT NAMES. LONDON, January 14. The Prim© Minister will be a pallbearer when Thomas Hardy is buried in the Abbey, the others being Mr Ramsay MacDonald, Mr Rudyard Kipling. Sir James Barrie, Mr Bernard Shaw. Mr John Galsworthy, Sir Edmund Gosse, (Professor A. E. Housman 1 the Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, and the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. The heart having been removed overnight, the body > was taken early this (Saturday) morning from Dorchester to Woking, lvhere it was cremated in the afternoon without ceremony," the only mourners being Sir James Barrie and Mr Lennox Gilmour, a barrister friend, who later brought the ashes in a bronze urn to London and bore them to Westminster, where they now rest in St. Faith's chapel, near the Poets' Corner, close to the spot where they will be buried on Monday. On Monday three services are beinp held, one at' the Abbey, another at the burial of the heart in Stinsford churchyard, and another in Dorchester. The French Government has sent condolences. HEART AT STINSFORD.

REPLICA OF ABBEY CASKET. (Received This Dav, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON. January 15. Mrs Hardy and Sir James Barrie deposited the casket containing the late Mr Thomas Hardy's heart at Stinsford Vicarage, where it will remain umfcil Monday, when a service will be held in the churchyard. The casket is an exact replica of the casket containing the ashes in t.'io Abbey. Stinsford villagers to-day sang Mr Hardy's favourite hymns. ' and the ;ectoi' included in his prayer thanksgiving because the heart is to remain at Stinsford. The King and the Prince of Wales will be represented at the service at the Abbey to-morrow.