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Wessex - Faithful, Unflinching
MUTT - Everything Dog has just opened in Brewery Square, Dorchester, providing an all-round experience for dogs and owners.
They have dedicated a special seating area to Hardy's much-loved dog Wessex.
A plaque records Hardy's words "The Famous dog Wessex. Faithful, Unflinching" and Lady Asquith's description of Wessex as "the most despotic dog guests have ever suffered under."
Hardy honoured the characterful fox terrier with two poems, "A Popular Personage at Home" and "Dead Wessex, the Dog of the Household" after his death.
A Popular Personage at Home
‘I live here: “Wessex” is my name:
I am a dog known rather well:
I guard the house; but how that came
To be my whim I cannot tell.
‘With a leap and a heart elate I go
At the end of an hour’s expectancy
To take a walk of a mile or so
With the folk I let live here with me.
‘Along the path, amid the grass
I sniff, and find out rarest smells
For rolling over as I pass
The open fields towards the dells.
‘No doubt I shall always cross this sill,
And turn the corner, and stand steady,
Gazing back for my mistress till
She reaches where I have run already,
‘And that this meadow with its brook,
And bulrush, even as it appears
As I plunge by with hasty look,
Will stay the same a thousand years.’
Thus ‘Wessex’. But a dubious ray
At times informs his steadfast eye,
Just for a trice, as though to say,
‘Yet, will this pass, and pass shall I?’
Dead "Wessex" the Dog of the Household
Do you think of me at all,
Wistful ones?
Do you think of me at all
As if nigh?
Do you think of me at all
At the creep of evenfall,
Or when the sky-birds call
As they fly?
Do you look for me at times,
Wistful ones?
Do you look for me at times
Strained and still?
Do you look for me at times,
When the hour for walking chimes,
On that grassy path that climbs
Up the hill?
You may hear a jump or trot,
Wistful ones,
You may hear a jump or trot —
Mine, as 'twere —
You may hear a jump or trot
On the stair or path or plot;
But I shall cause it not,
Be not there.
Should you call as when I knew you,
Wistful ones,
Should you call as when I knew you,
Shared your home;
Should you call as when I knew you,
I shall not turn to view you,
I shall not listen to you,
Shall not come.
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London Walk: The Hardy Tree
On 06/12/2025
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Starts 12:00 until 14:00
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On 06/12/2025
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Starts 15:00 until 16:00
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