Thomas Hardy described his fictional village of Marlott as being in an “engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours’ journey from London”.
But the Victorian realist would now barely recognise Marnhull, the real-life village in north Dorset upon which Marlott was based, and would probably be surprised to know his name is repeatedly invoked in official submissions arguing against its expansion.
