Dorset is a literary fun-fest for the devoted reader. After having visited Oxford or Cambridge where the Great Authors studied, you can come down south to where they lived or spent a deal of time visiting.
Dorset is best known as Thomas Hardy's "Wessex" and the Hardiana runs thick and fast since he got around a bit and his famous house, now practically a pilgrimage site, "Max Gate", is located in Dorchester. Dorchester was "Casterbridge" for Hardy, and Bournemouth, the gently aging grande dame of beach resort towns was immortalized by Jane Austen in Persuasion. T.E. Lawrence lived in a little cottage called "Clouds Hill" eight miles east of Dorchester until his untimely death on the winding south country roads.
The heath country of Dorset is made famous by many authors and retains a wildness amongst the dairy farms that is striking even at the turn of the millenium. Studland Heath is an area of conservation near Swanage that is trying to save the heathland.
But it is not the heath but the striking limstone coast that draws most visitors to the area. The beaches are shallow and a little chilly, but the views from the south coastal path are beautiful, and the fossil hunting is excellent. The county museum in Dorchester as an excellent exhibit concerning the wonderful fossil finds made in Dorset.
