Editing Thomas Hardy (section)

=== Later years ===
[[File:Florence Hardy at the seaside 1915.jpg|thumb|200px|Florence Hardy at the seashore, 1915]]

From the 1880s, Hardy became increasingly involved in campaigns to save ancient buildings from destruction, or destructive modernisation, and he became an early member of the [[Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings]]. His correspondence refers to his unsuccessful efforts to prevent major alterations to the parish church at Puddletown, close to his home at Max Gate. He became a frequent visitor at [[Athelhampton House]], which he knew from his teenage years, and in his letters he encouraged the owner, Alfred Cart de Lafontaine, to conduct the restoration of that building in a sensitive way.

In 1914, Hardy was one of 53 leading British authors—including [[H. G. Wells]], [[Rudyard Kipling]] and Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in the [[First World War]]. This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war."<ref>{{cite news |title=1914 Authors' Manifesto Defending Britain's Involvement in WWI, Signed by H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |access-date=27 February 2020 |work=Slate |archive-date=27 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227070407/https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Hardy was horrified by the destruction caused by the war, pondering that "I do not think a world in which such fiendishness is possible to be worth the saving" and "better to let western 'civilization' perish, and let the black and yellow races have a chance."<ref name="Sherman">{{cite book |last=Sherman |first=George William |title=The Pessimism of Thomas Hardy |date=1976 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |page=447}}</ref> He wrote to [[John Galsworthy]] that "the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world."<ref name="Sherman"/>

Shortly after helping to excavate the [[Fordington mosaic]], Hardy became ill with [[pleurisy]] in December 1927 and died at [[Max Gate]] just after 9&nbsp;pm on 11 January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed; the cause of death was cited, on his death certificate, as "cardiac syncope", with "old age" given as a contributory factor. His funeral was on 16 January at [[Westminster Abbey]], and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His family and friends concurred; however, his executor, Sir [[Sydney Carlyle Cockerell]], insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous [[Poets' Corner]]. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bradford, Charles Angell |author-link=Charles Angell Bradford |title=Heart Burial |year=1933 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=London |isbn=978-1-162-77181-6 |page=246}}</ref> Hardy's estate at death was valued at [[Pound sterling|£]]95,418 ({{inflation|UK|95418|1928|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}).<ref>From Probate Index for 1928: "Hardy O. M. Thomas of Max Gate Dorchester Dorsetshire died 11 January 1928 Probate London 22 February to Lloyds Bank Limited Effects £90707 14s 3d Resworn £95418 3s 1d."</ref>

Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks, but twelve notebooks survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s, and research into these has provided insight into how Hardy used them in his works. The opening chapter of ''The Mayor of Casterbridge'', for example, written in 1886, was based on press reports of wife-selling.<ref name="BBC200803">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/homeground/archive/2003/thomas_hardy.shtml |title=Homeground: Dead man talking |date=20 August 2003 |work=BBC Online |access-date=2006-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040831225219/http://www.bbc.co.uk/homeground/archive/2003/thomas_hardy.shtml |archive-date=31 August 2004}}</ref> In the year of his death Mrs Hardy published ''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841–1891'', compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral information in conversations extending over many years.

Hardy's work was admired by many younger writers, including [[D. H. Lawrence]],<ref>{{Citation |title=Study of Thomas Hardy and other essays |orig-year=1914 |editor-first=Bruce |editor-last=Steele |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-521-25252-0 |chapter=Literary criticism and metaphysics}}.</ref> [[John Cowper Powys]] and [[Virginia Woolf]].<ref>"The Novels of Thomas Hardy", ''The Common Reader'', 2nd series.</ref> In his autobiography ''[[Good-Bye to All That]]'' (1929), [[Robert Graves]] recalls meeting Hardy in Dorset in the early 1920s and how Hardy received him and his new wife warmly, and was encouraging about his work.

Hardy's [[Thomas Hardy's Cottage|birthplace in Bockhampton]] and his house [[Max Gate]], both in Dorchester, are owned by the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]].