MR. HARDY’S BURIAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1928, Page 7

MR. HARDY’S BURIAL

RELATIVES OBJECT TO ABBEY DORSET’S PRIOR CLAIM '’Anßt.raliß.n and N.Z Gable A««nafatfoTi.) (By Gable—Prean Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, January 14. Dorchester people are surprised at the decision that the late Mr. Thomas Hardy should be buried in Westminster Abbey, instead of in his own beloved Dorset. The late Mr. Hardy’s brother, sister and cousin expressed the opinion that his request to be buried among his own folk should have been respected. In view of the strength of this feeling locally, the Rector of Stinsford has approached the widow, and suggested that, instead of Mr.' Hardy’s memory being perpetuated merely by a tablet, his heart should be.buried in Stinsford churchyard. The widow gladly consented.

The late Mr. Hardy will leave his beloved Wessex with no pageantry to bid him farewell, at eight o’clock on Sunday morning. The coffin will be carried from his home, and taken direct to Woking, where the body will be cremated, the ashes going thence to Westminster Abbey to await burial in the Poet’s Corner, near the grave of Dickens.

The burial of the heart in Wessex effects a compromise dear to the hearts of Dorset people. They felt deeply that the arrangement whereby a waiter so peculiarly their own should not rest, in acordance with Mr Hardy’s own dearest wish, among them after his death. His brother and sister, however, are still convinced that Mr. 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 io be regarded as a national possession. Throughout Dorset the same opinion prevailed. Miss Teresa Hardy, his sister, who grew up -with him, and knew.him better than anybody, said: “It is cruel to take Tom away.” ’ ; The Mayor of Dorchester says a mistake is being made in removing Mr Hardy’s remains. He was Dorset born ,and it is wrong that he should bo taken from Dorset. The body, lies to-night in a bedroom which he had not left since Christmas, covered with the scarlet robe of a Doctor of Literature (Cambridge), which will be his funeral shroud. On his breast lies the Order of Merit. There has been a steam of visitors all day to the remote cottage, only a mile away from th? spot where the ■ ate Mr. Hardy was born, and where he wrote his earliest works. THREE FUNERAL SERVICES. LONDON, January 14. The Premier will be a pall-bearer when the late Thomas Hardy is buried in the Abbey. The others will be Mr Ramsay MacDonald, Mr R. Kipling, Sir J. Barrie, Mr Bernard Shaw, Mr. Gal worthy Sir Edmund Goose, and Professor A. E. Housman, the Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford, and the e Master of College, Cam- * bridge. The heart having been removed overnight, the body was taken early this (Saturday) morning'from’Dorchester to Woking, where it was cremated in the afternoon without ceremony, the . only mourners being Sir J. 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 Poets’ Corner, close to the spot where they will be buried on Monday, when three services are being held, firstly at the Abbey, secondly ,at the burial of the heart in Stinsford Churchyard, and thirdly, a service in Dorchester. The French Government sent condolences. SCENES AT STINSFORD. LONDON, Jahuary 15. Mrs Hardy and Sir James Barrie deposited the casket containing c Hardy’s heart at Stinsford Vicarage, where it will remain until Monday’s service in the churchyard. The casket is an exact replica of the casket containing the ashes in the Abbey. Stinsford villagers to-day sang Hardy’s hymns, and the Rector included a prayer of thanksgiving, because the heart is to remain at Stinsford. The King and the Prince of Wales will be represented at the Abbey tomorrow.