Stancy Castle, Markton. Source of photograph: A Laodicean, A Story of To-day in the Anniversary Edition of the Wessex Novels, 1920, based in part on previous editions and the photographs of 1912. Facing page 416.
Stancy Castle, another view of which is shown in the frontispiece, was evidently suggested by Dunster Castle. The name Dunster prepares us to some extent for the situation of the castle. "Tor" means tower; "dun" means hill; and hence we are not surprised to find an almost precipitous hill clothed with grand old trees, from which the richly coloured stone towers and parapets arise against the skyline. When Edward the Confessor was King, Dunster Castle was held by Aluric, but William the Conqueror made it over to William de Mohun. During the Parliamentary wars its politics changed rapidly; first it declared for the Parliament, afterwards for King Charles; then it was beseiged for several months by Cromwell's forces, to whom it finally surrendered. In 1376 it was purchased by the ancestors of the present owner
[These remarks by the anonymous editors often seem to be based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1913) by Herman Lea -- PVA].
Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean, A Story of To-day. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1912.
Last modified 24 August 2002