Dunster Village and Castle

[Hardy's Stancy Castle, Markton]

Source of photograph: A Laodicean in the Anniversary Edition, 1920, facing title page

According to the editors, many of whose remarks seem based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1913) by Herman Lea, "Stancy Castle was probably suggested by Dunster Castle, which is situated on the north Somerset coast. Though serving as the model for Stancy Castle, the author supplied, either from imagination or from reminiscences of other architectural piles, certain features and details not to be found in Dunster Castle as it appears to-day [1912]. From the north of the little town of Dunster — called Markton in the novel — the castle occupies a very commanding position, towering above the houses."

Scanned image and text 2002 by Philip V. Allingham

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