Who was the writer who made visitors tour his cats' graves?
December 2, 2023 6:23 AM Subscribe
What it says on the tin. I know I read about a writer--definitely male, probably British--who required all visitors to tour his pet graveyard. Who was that?
Response by poster: Hardy had a dog named Wessex, no cats. Ironically. a cat ate part of his heart.
posted by mermaidcafe at 7:56 AM on December 2, 2023
posted by mermaidcafe at 7:56 AM on December 2, 2023
Hardy had multiple cats. Here's his lovely tribute poem after one died. Michael Millgate's Hardy biography has a great picture of his wife holding one. She is covered in white cat hair.
There is an old story that a dog in Dorset ate Hardy's heart - once read an article by someone who talked to an old lady there who said that. I've never heard it as a cat until now, though the internet seems to think that happened. But there's never been any real verification. I've never heard of him forcing people to go to the pet cemetery, but visitors to Max Gate used to complain that he and Emma let the animals on the table while they were eating.
Source: Did a Master's thesis on Thomas Hardy biography.
posted by FencingGal at 8:26 AM on December 2, 2023 [16 favorites]
There is an old story that a dog in Dorset ate Hardy's heart - once read an article by someone who talked to an old lady there who said that. I've never heard it as a cat until now, though the internet seems to think that happened. But there's never been any real verification. I've never heard of him forcing people to go to the pet cemetery, but visitors to Max Gate used to complain that he and Emma let the animals on the table while they were eating.
Source: Did a Master's thesis on Thomas Hardy biography.
posted by FencingGal at 8:26 AM on December 2, 2023 [16 favorites]
Adjacent information that may spark a memory: there's a Victorian pet cemetery in Hyde Park, London which features very briefly in Peter Pan.
posted by socky_puppy at 12:26 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by socky_puppy at 12:26 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think it was Dante Gabriel Rossetti but I can’t find the cite. He had a pet wombat -lovely article here - it was linked on the blue some time in the last year or so - and I thought the article meantioned his pet cemetery as well. A brief re-skim doesn’t bring it up, though. Still, it sounds like the sort of thing the pre-Raphaelites would go for.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:23 PM on December 2, 2023
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:23 PM on December 2, 2023
Housemate, I can think you still
Bounding to the window-sill,
Over which I vaguely see
Your small mound beneath the tree,
Showing in the autumn shade
That you moulder where you played.
Lovely. Thank you, Fencing Gal.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:18 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Bounding to the window-sill,
Over which I vaguely see
Your small mound beneath the tree,
Showing in the autumn shade
That you moulder where you played.
Lovely. Thank you, Fencing Gal.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:18 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Not Hemingway, though I share his love for polydactyls.
More recent than Rosetti (though I agree it's up their alley).
posted by mermaidcafe at 2:17 PM on December 7, 2023
More recent than Rosetti (though I agree it's up their alley).
posted by mermaidcafe at 2:17 PM on December 7, 2023
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posted by Perplexity at 7:14 AM on December 2, 2023