Stylish Sherborne, is where Sir Walter Raleigh paid court to Elizabeth l, it also was Hardy's Sherton Abbas, and some of the main characters of Tess of the D'Urbervilles lived at Melcombe Bingham in the manor house, which was the Bingham's family home for over 600 years

The wild heathland of mid-Dorset is Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1929) country. The novelist lived all his life here and used the landscape as the memorable background to many of his novels. A re-reading of The Return of the Native with its graphic descriptions of 'Egdon Heath', adds the pleasure of recognition to a visitor's exploration of this beautiful, if sombre, region.

Hardy was born in Bockhampton, near Dorchester, and the village of Stinsford is the original 'Mellstock' of his novel Under the Greenwood Tree. Among the vast stretches of heathland, where brackens and rare wild flowers abound, are other towns which appear in his novels, such as Dorchester ('Casterbridge'), Weymouth ('Budmouth'), Bere Regis ('Kingsbere') and Puddletown ('Weatherbury').

South of Bere Regis, lonely hill country stretches to the sea; to the west is the fertile valley of the River Piddle, in which lies the famous village of Tolpuddle, home of the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs'. Here, in 1834, six farm labourers met to propose the formation of a trade union. They were arrested, charged as a Secret society' and sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia. After an outcry, they were pardoned two years later and offered a passage home.

South of the heathland is a region associated with another notable English writer; it was to a cottage north of Moreton that T. E. Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia', moved in 1935 after he left the Royal Air Force, in which he had served as "Aircraftman Shaw". The atomic energy station at nearby Winfrith seems to emphasise the solitude of this isolated yet not inhospitable countryside. Along the coast, by contrast, there are safe, sandy beaches and the notable beauty spot of Lulworth Cove, one of the gems of the South.

THE TASTY VINNY

Dorset blue vinny (veiny) is an old variation of Stilton type cheese, made from hand skimmed milk. Dorset knobs are crisp rolls which are best eaten with the cheese.