Shadwater Weir. 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. Facing p. 440.
"Shadwater Weir, situated at the foot of one of the slopes of Egdon Heath, 'had at its foot a large circular pool, fifty feet in diameter, into which the water flowed through the huge hatches.' The actual weir from which Shadwater Weir was drawn can be found in the meadows behind Woodsford Castle. It takes in the whole water of the river Froom; in winter the pool is a boiling cauldron, the flow of water rushing with terrific force. It has been little changed since the time when Damon Wildeve and Eustacia were supposed to have been drowned in it" [These remarks by the anonymous editors often seem to be based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1913) by Herman Lea -- PVA].
Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native in The Writings of Thomas Hardy in Prose and Verse with Prefaces and Notes in Twenty-One Volumes. Vol. IV. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1920.
Last modified 31 August 2002