Dictionary of People and Places in Hardy’S Works

Abstract

A^bbot’s C^ernel. Cerne Abbas, seven miles north of Dorchester. On Giant’s Hill, just outside this ancient town, there is an enormous figure of a giant, of unknown origin, cut into the chalk, with a club 120 feet long. Of the Benedictine Abbey all that remains is the gatehouse, with a beautiful two-storeyed oriel window. The tithe-born is in an excellent state of preservation; one half of it nowforms a large farmhouse. See plates facing pp. 110, 335.