Sunday 10 June 2012

A country wedding in Dorset

Whenever someone asks me where I come from I look vague and say I’m not sure. My father was in the RAF when I was little and we moved house so many times I lost count. Actually, thinking back, nowhere really felt like home till we arrived in Dorset when I was 11.

This weekend we were invited to a wedding in the wilds of Dorset and as we drove through country lanes filled with cow parsley, foxgloves and buttercups, it suddenly struck me that if I come from anywhere at all, it’s there.

Once we’d passed the suburban sprawl of Bournemouth, where I went to school, every village signpost brought memories of the past flooding back. The pub where we had lunch with my mother every Saturday for years, the fields where we’d picnic, the beach I took my husband to the first time he visited our house, the hill my children used to roll down, laughing hysterically as they gathered speed and ending up in a heap at the bottom.

The other striking thing about Dorset is the weather. The sky was a murky shade of grey when we left Oxford at the crack of dawn but when we arrived in Dorset, the clouds lifted and the sun came out. The fields were so lush and green after last week’s torrential rain that the landscape looked like something straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel. Speaking of which, I’ve just heard that Radio 4 is recording a new version of my favourite Hardy book, Far From the Madding Crowd, to be broadcast in the autumn.

Finally we arrived at Minterne House in the village of Minterne Magna, where the wedding was held.  A stunning Edwardian manor house that’s been used for scores of films (Far From the Madding Crowd among them), it was the perfect setting for such a happy day. A choir from nearby Beaminster sang, the bride and groom made their vows beneath a painting of the Battle of Trafalgar and when it was all over they roared off down the drive in the bridegroom’s gleaming classic Morgan. In his book, England’s Thousand Best Houses, Simon Jenkins called Minterne House “a corner of paradise” – and he was right.

10 comments:

  1. Good to hear about Far from the Madding Crowd - that's also my favourite Hardy book.

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    1. It's wonderful, isn't it? Just writing the title made me want to search out my copy and read it all over again.

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  2. Dorset is the best! Next time you come, lady, come and see us in The Enchanted Village. I think I should just organise the Mirror Group reunion right here, right now. x

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    1. Thanks so much, Maddie. It's funny because it was only when I got back that I realised we must have been very close to The Enchanted Village. I'd love to visit next time - and fabulous idea to have the next MGN reunion there. Count me in! x

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  3. It's such a lovely part of the world.

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    1. Completely agree, Nell! Are you going to set a book there?

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  4. What a lovely post-your description made me feel as though I was there-'country lanes filled with cow parsley...'. I have fond memories of holidays in Bournemouth as a child.

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    1. Thank you very much for your lovely comment, Anita. We lived very close to the beach at Branksome Chine when we first moved to Dorset and it was a wonderful place to be.

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  5. I have just started my daughter on Hardy. Love the description. Thank you Anita for linking this post to my blog. Celia

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    1. Thanks so much, Celia and Enzo. I wish I was going there this weekend. Will perhaps read Hardy instead!

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