Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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A disembodied heart?
A visit to Stinford Church in Dorset brought us in touch with England's literary past and the grave of Thomas Hardy, author of The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. He's buried alongside members of his close family and his two wives are actually buried in the same grave as his heart. I was puzzled to find his grave, as I had always believed that he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, not a small village churchyard in Dorset. Incidentally Cecil Day-Lewis, poet and father of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis is also buried in the same cemetry; a place that is clearly host to many of our English greats.
On reading the text on the tombstone, one discovers that it is only his heart that is buried in Stinford; his body, or the rest of it, so to speak, is actually in London. His ashes are buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
I recall the text of my Last Will and Testament that I have had drafted and as yet still awaits my signature when I return to London later this week after our break in the country. An almost automatic inclusion is a line or two; the exact wording escapes me; but it says something along the lines of... "I donate all of my organs for use in medicine and science, but only after I am dead and only after it is confirmed so by a professional person of suitably qualification." Or something like that... I'm glad that this little statement is in my Will, as otherwise I'd be a little nervous about the possibility of any little removals of something important to my life, if there was any possibility that I could draw another breath.
So Thomas Hardy's disembodied heart lies at Stinford Church while the biggest part of him lies in the grandeur of Westminster Abbey. Apparently he wanted to be buried at Stinsford but the authorities deemed him too important to be interred in such a small, if not important village and they had him buried at the London Abbey. However Hardy did get his way and his heart was buried as he wished. I just hope he too had someone suitably qualified to certify he was completely and utterly dead before authorising the removal of his heart...
Tomorrow we go walking in Dorset with a visit to Mapperton Gardens with my cameras.
