HARDY, Thomas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

"In the Time of the Breaking of Nations", autograph fair copy, signed. A fair copy in Hardy's hand, signed by him at the end. Among his most famous and anthologized poems, Hardy's elegy on common life during times of conflict was inspired by a scene he witnessed in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war. It was eventually composed in 1915 during the First World War."On the day that the bloody battle of Gravelotte was fought they were reading Tennyson in the grounds of the rectory. It was at this time and spot that Hardy was struck by the incident of the old horse harrowing the arable field in the valley below" (Early Life, p. 104). Hardy made a rough note of the scene and revisited it for this poem almost half a century later. Discussing the episode, he acknowledged his tendency "for burying an emotion in my heart or brain for forty years, and exhuming it at the end of that time as fresh as when interred" (Later Years, p. 178).Included is an autograph letter signed by the author's wife, Florence Hardy, presenting the manuscript to the renowned collector Paul Lemperly (1858-1939): "I send you herewith a sheet of MS... This one is from my husband with his regards" (11 July 1918). Florence Hardy also advises Lemperly that a Hardy drawing he was considering was a forgery, thanks him for offering to source her husband with any volume of poetry he wished, and expresses her desire to own a first edition of A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873).A charter member of the Rowfant Club, Lemperly was in

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