Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest of 1016, from 1020 to 1066. After the Norman Conquest there was a dissollution of the English earldoms, and Wessex was split between the followers of William the Conqueror.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC), Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, chieftains of a clan known as "Gewisse".
The two main sources for the names and dates of the kings of Wessex are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and an associated document known as the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List.



This is so lovely Chris....I do enjoy the pictures of all these towns. I have been to London, but I do need to visit other parts of the UK which have more of a country side feel. Great capture Chris

Chris Phillips: Well I very much hope you can visit Ada - because it is worth it!

Chris, thank you so much for you little map, I love these larg views of the surrounding, I see Mr.Evans was of great help again today when you picked a great sky.
E very nice and fine picture here.

Chris Phillips: A good next door neighbour is worth his weight in koffi Astrid!

good sky ... good countryside ... good pic

richard

Chris Phillips: Good response!

Oh, today the third step of evolution might have been reached: "intact male photographers as phillipses" (thanks to Mr. Evans,too!)! Today you might have surpassed yourself with this fabulous beautiful pic!- wonderfully composed, deep (green) and gentle colours, a lovely, soothing patchwork landscape, a wide, wide open outlook, and a gorgeous sky so that I would like to pluck a little white cloud again! This is "my" England- at its best - in my dreams and in reality (for many years ago I have been there in some parts of Wessex, especially at the coast, and I recognize the beautiful Isle of Wight on your map!) I very hope to come again!

Chris Phillips: When you come to England again Philine Mr Dufftown & I will be delighted to show you the sights of this part of the world: if you wish

Is it possible to acquire a copy of this photo in legal way (see legal policy)? I have the wish to hang up this picture on the wall of my working room!

Chris Phillips: It is entirely possible Philine. I will print it off on some photo paper and send it to you

Well, you learn something new everyday. Never realised that the fictional Casterbridge was on the coast! Looking out my window makes me think this was a different year - it looks like November today!

Chris Phillips: I think this is just a lousey map mike

I too am surprised - I always thought Casterbridge was supposed to be Dorchester. Amazing to see how big Wessex was. Love the image.
Ingrid

Chris Phillips: Hardy certainly used the name Casterbridge for Dorchester Ingrid

Read the Mayor of Casterbridge, many many moons ago and didn't realise it was coastal, in fact didn't realise it was fictional!! Although it's a tragic novel, I remember it filled with so much warmth.

Lovely country side pic, nice one.

Chris Phillips: It isn't coastal Fotografa - it's just a bad map!

"This is an imaginative Wessex only", Thomas Hardy is told to have said about "his Wessex", partly real, partly fictional. I envy Fotografa and all the other English speaking persons who are able to read these novels, for all translations might be pale reflections of the original. I read the beginning of "Far from the Madding Crowd", an impressive and specified description of the landscape at mid-night, filled with so much atmosphere (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/26/55/frameset.html)!
Yes, Chris, I would like to accept your offer (more informations via mail)!

Chris Phillips: Thank you Philine

Great sky and landscape

Chris Phillips: Thank you Vintage

I see the BBC is banging out another version of Tess of the d'urgells. Now there's a happy story of everyday country folk.

Chris Phillips: Oi - thought you were in flat 'at land! Well yes: Hardy was a miserable old sod - but a rather talented one, it has to be said

Oh yes Chris, more of this lovely English countryside of ours. Isn't it amazing how our friends from overseas all like our landscapes, and want to come and see it for themselves. Perhaps some of them will one day.

Chris Phillips: Well I sincerely hope they do Brian: and it would be my privilige to meet them if they did

Got back late this afternoon.

Chris Phillips: I've been to Didcot today - looking at Great Western steam engines

"The traveller from the coast... is surprised and delighted to behold, extended like a map beneath him, a country differing absolutely from that which he has passed through. Behind him the hills are open, the sun blazes down upon fields so large as to give an unenclosed character to the landscape ... Here... the world seems to be constructed upon a smaller and more delicate scale; the fields are mere paddocks, so reduced that from this height their hedgerows appear a network of dark green threads overspreading the paler green of the grass. The atmosphere beneath is languorous, and is so tinged with azure that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue, while the horizon beyond is of the deepest ultramarine. Arable lands are few and limited; with but slight exceptions the prospect is a broad rich mass of grass and trees, mantling minor hills and dales within the major." (Hardy, Tess)
Some metaphers "unenclosed charakter of the landscape"- "a network of dark green threads"... are matchless!

Chris Phillips: I think you have summed it up beautifully Philine