Egdon Heath

Source of photograph: The Return of the Native in the Anniversary Edition of the Wessex Novels, 1920, based in part on previous editions and the photographs of 1912. Frontispiece.

"Egdon Heath represents that vast expanse of moorland which extends, almost without a break, from Dorchester to Bournemouth, and is the scene of practically all the incidents in 'The Return of the Native.'

"Under the general name of 'Egdon Heath,' which has been given to the sombre scene of the styory, are united or typified heaths of various real names, to the number of at least a dozen. It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose south-western quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex -- Lear.'

"To picture Egdon Heath as it appears in the story, 'imagine it at the transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness,' for 'nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time.'