Wessex, Wessie for short, was bought by Thomas Hardy's second wife to protect their home. The fox terrier, related to King Edward VII's dog Caesar, was not well-liked by Hardy at first due to his unruly behavior. He would nip and shred pant legs of servants and guests, and even bit the leg of novelist John Galsworthy. Overtime, Hardy became very attached to Wessie. He would take him for car rides, let him lie on a comfortable bed in his study, and kiss him every night before bedtime.
Wessie was given a radio as a gift by a company and fell in love with it. He listened to it often, and Hardy would even wake up early in the morning to turn the radio on for him. Once, while at a dress rehearsal, he was at his best behavior, until the time came for his favorite radio program - he howled and caused such a fuss that Hardy had to take him home.
Wessie was put to sleep at the age of 13 in December 1926. In a letter to a friend, he says "We miss him greatly, but he was in such misery with swelling and paralysis that it was a relief when a kind breath of chloroform administered in his sleep by 2 good-natured Doctors (not vets) made his sleep an endless one - A dog of such strong character required human doctors!"
After his death, Hardy wrote two poems about him:
Dead "Wessex" the Dog to the Household
Do you think of me at all,
Wistful ones?
Do you think of me at all
As if nigh?
Do you think of me at all
At the creep of evenfall,
Or when the sky-birds call
As they fly?
Do you look for me at times,
Wistful ones?
Do you look for me at times
Strained and still?
Do you look for me at times,
When the hour for walking chimes,
On that grassy path that climbs
Up the hill?
You may hear a jump or trot,
Wistful ones,
You may hear a jump or trot —
Mine, as 'twere —
You may hear a jump or trot
On the stair or path or plot;
But I shall cause it not,
Be not there.
Should you call as when I knew you,
Wistful ones,
Should you call as when I knew you,
Shared your home;
Should you call as when I knew you,
I shall not turn to view you,
I shall not listen to you,
Shall not come.
A Popular Personage at Home (this poem was written from the perspective of the dog)
'I live here: "Wessex" is my name:
I am a dog known rather well:
I guard the house but how that came
To be my whim I cannot tell.
'With a leap and a heart elate I go
At the end of an hour’s expectancy
To take a walk of a mile or so
With the folk I let live here with me.
'Along the path, amid the grass
I sniff, and find out rarest smells
For rolling over as I pass
The open fields toward the dells.
'No doubt I shall always cross this sill,
And turn the corner, and stand steady,
Gazing back for my Mistress till
She reaches where I have run already,
'And that this meadow with its brook,
And bulrush, even as it appears
As I plunge by with hasty look,
Will stay the same a thousand years.’
Thus 'Wessex.' But a dubious ray
At times informs his steadfast eye,
Just for a trice, as though to say,
'Yet, will this pass, and pass shall I?'
