In which fictional county were the novels of Thomas Hardy set
Thomas Hardy geological descriptions. It has also been suggested that the character of Henry Knight in "A Pair of Blue Eyes" was based on Horace Moule. Sites associated with Hardy's own life and which inspired the settings of his novels continue to attract literary tourists and casual visitors. For locations in Hardy's novels see: Thomas Hardy's Wessex, and the Thomas Hardy's Wessex research site, which includes maps. Hardy corresponded with and visited Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell at Wenlock Abbey and many of Lady Catherine's books are inspired by Hardy, who was very fond of her. D. H. Lawrence's "Study of Thomas Hardy"
Thomas Hardy composers, including Gerald Finzi, Benjamin Britten, and Gustav Holst, set poems by Hardy to music. Holst also wrote the orchestral tone poem "Egdon Heath: A Homage to Thomas Hardy" in 1927. Although his poems were initially not as well received as his novels had been, Hardy is now recognised as one of the greatest twentieth-century poets, and his verse has had a profound influence on later writers, including Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and, most notably Philip Larkin. Larkin included twenty-seven poems by Hardy compared with only nine by T. S. Eliot in his edition of the "Oxford