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This region of southern England -
Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight - approximates to
the kingdom of Wessex of both Alfred the Great and Thomas Hardy, whose boundaries, in
the first case, varied and, in the second, were never strictly defined; nevertheless, it is - and used
to be even more definitely - a unity.It may be said of
the region in general that the districts furthest from London preserved their
identity longer: but, in face of modern development, the areas remote not only
from London but also from any of the other major towns have retained most
of the character they possessed for centuries but which has, in many cases, been
destroyed within the last couple of decades. |
