One Rare Fair Woman: Thomas Hardy’s Letters to Florence Henniker 1893–1922

266 Pages·1972·22.927 MB·English

by  Evelyn Hardy, F. B. Pinion (eds.)

ONE RARE FAIR WOMAN
Also by Evelyn Hardy
Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography
Thomas Hardy's Notebooks (edited)
Some Recollections by Emma Hardy
(edited with Robert Gittings)
Also by F. B. Pinion
A Hardy Companion
A Critical Commentary on The Mayor
of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy by William Strang, 1893
ONE RARE FAIR
WOMAN
Thomas Hardy's Letters to Florence Henniker
I89J-1922
edited by
Evelyn Hardy and F. B. Pinion
Palgrave Macmillan
Editorial matter© Evelyn Hardy and F. B. Pinion 1972
Thomas Hardy's letters © the Trustees of the Hardy Estate
1972
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1972 978-0-333-13182-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission.
First published I972 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York Toronto
Dublin Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras
SBN 333 13182 7
ISBN 978-1-349-01329-6 ISBN 978-1-349-01327-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-01327-2
As for one rare fair woman, I am now but a thought of
hers,
I enter her mind and another thought succeeds me that
she prefers;
Yet my love for her in its fulness she herself even did
not know;
Well, time cures hearts of tenderness, and now I can let
her go.
'Wessex Heights', 18g6
She has always been a sincere and affectionate friend to
him, staunch and unaltering-and, I am glad to say, she is
my friend too. There was never any idea ofhis letting her
go - for he, too, is true and faithful to his friends, but the
poet wrote that.
Florence Hardy to Lady Hoare,
g December 1914
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements XI
Prefaces
I by Evelyn Hardy xm
II by F. B. Pinion XXIX
Note on the text xlii
LETTERS I
'In Death Divided' 203
Appendixes
I The letters of the Hon. Mrs Henniker to
Thomas Hardy (Igo6-22) 204
II 'The Hon. Mrs. Henniker' by Thomas Hardy 209
III Published volumes of novels and short stories by the
Hon. Mrs Henniker 2 II
IV Bibliography of principal references in the Notes 2 13
Index 2I5
List of Illustrations
Thomas Hardy by William Strang, 18931 frontispiece
Vice-regal Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin, c. 1893 facing p. xxx
Florence Ellen Henniker (the Hon. Mrs Arthur
Henniker). Photograph by Chancellor, 1893 xxxi
Mary Jeune, wife of Sir Francis Jeune, c. 1900 118
First page of Hardy's letter on the death of
George Meredith, 1909 119
Major-General the Hon. Arthur Henry Henniker-
Major,2 C.B. (probably 1911) 150
Thomas Hardy and Edmund Gosse at Max Gate in
1927, after a friendship of more than fifty years 151
Facsimiles of a letter by Mrs Henniker and a postscript by
Thomas Hardy appear on pages xxvii and 17)
1. The earliest known portrait of Hardy.
2. Both Mrs Henniker and her husband preferred the shorter form
to the full family name.
Acknowledgements
Miss Evelyn Hardy gratefully acknowledges the permission of
the Hardy Estate Trustees to publish these letters and the
receipt of a special Research Award from the Leverhulme
Trust for her share in this work.
The editors are indebted to the following for their generous
assistance: the late Marchioness of Crewe for making avail
able to Miss Hardy the Marquis of Crewe's reminiscences of
his sister, and for supplying information which led to dis
coveries elsewhere; Mr Gerald FitzGerald, Fellow of St
Edmund's House, Cambridge, for his valuable recollections
and for permission to quote from his aunt's letters to Thomas
Hardy; Lord Henniker, for his ready assistance on a number
of occasions; the Trustees of the Hardy Estate and the Curator
of the Dorset County Museum for enabling us to transcribe
Hardy's letters to Mrs Henniker and consult other unpub
lished ones; the University Library, Cambridge, Colby College
Library, the Brotherton Library, Leeds University, and the
County Archivist, Trowbridge (and Mr H. P. R. Hoare and
the National Trust), for allowing the use of information and
brief quotations from letters in their possession; also the
British Museum and its Newspaper Library, Colindale, and
the University Library, Sheffield, for their ready co-operation
in our researches.
We are grateful to the following for the useful information
they have been able to supply: Mr Douglas Matthews, Deputy
Librarian of the London Library; Mr Ralph Malbon, City
Librarian, Portsmouth; Mr John Townsend; Miss E. M.
Samuel; and Mrs Madeleine Stewart-Mackenzie. We should
like also to acknowledge the patience and courtesy of many
to whom inquiries, which proved to be insoluble, have been
addressed.
Illustrations are included by courtesy of the National Por
trait Gallery (Thomas Hardy by William Strang), the National
Library of Ireland (Vice-regal Lodge), the London Library
(Mrs Henniker, from Outlines), Mrs M. Stewart-Mackenzie
(Lady Jeune), Lord Henniker (Major-General Henniker),
and Mrs Bellows (Edmund Gosse and Thomas Hardy, photo-