1. Purbeck Hills.
2.Fauna...
3.
4. Flora...
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6.
7.
8. Exotica...Lulworth Estate.
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10. Moreton. Dorset.
T.E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) lived nearby at Clouds Hill, Bovington and his last resting place is in Moreton cemetary.
The entrance to the cemetery is a porch consisting of four Ionic columns under a pedimented roof.
The ornate entrance to the village’s graveyard started life as the entrance to the kitchen gardens at Moreton House.
It was moved in about 1950.
11.In 1935 26 february, at the age of 46 he decided to retire from the military.
As he wrote to a friend on May 6, 1935, as he was settling into Clouds Hill permanently.
It would not be.
Precisely a week later, Lawrence had a fatal motorcycle accident near Clouds Hill.
On May 13, while returning on his motorcycle from the Post Office at Bovington Camp.
T.E Lawrence was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, close to his cottage, Clouds Hill, near Wareham.
The accident occurred because of a dip in the road that obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control and was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle.
Only one man on the Isle of Purbeck rode such an expensive motorcycle - Brough Superior SS100...probably travelling far faster than anyone appreciated.
He died six days later on May 19.
Some sources mistakenly claim that Lawrence was buried in St Paul's Cathedral; in reality, only a bust of him was placed in the crypt.
His final resting place is the Dorset village of Moreton.
12. The gravestones - perhaps more overtly religious in tone than Lawrence would have liked - were chosen by his mother and his elder brother Bob.
On Lawrence's grave stone is carved these words: "The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live."
The headstone makes no reference to his exploits in Arabia but only to his connection with Oxford University; the open book at the foot of the grave displays the university’s motto.
13. The Walled Garden and Dovecote Cafe:
14. Russian Kefir Crepes - GastroSenses:
- The Enigma of Thomas Edward Lawrence:
On 13 May 1935, he wheeled out his massive Brough Superior motorcycle for the last time and rode down to Bovington camp to send a telegram in reply to a letter received that morning from Henry Williamson, proposing the vital meeting with Adolf Hitler.
The telegram of agreement was dispatched and then on the way back the accident happened.
He was just 200 yards from the cottage.
At least four witnesses saw it: two delivery boys on bicycles, an army corporal walking in the field by the road and the occupants of a black van heading toward Lawrence.
After the crash the black van raced off down the road and the corporal ran over to the injured man who lay on the road with his face covered in blood.
Almost immediately an army truck came along and Lawrence was put inside and taken to the camp hospital where a top security guard was imposed.
Special "D" notices were put on all newspapers and the War Office took charge of all communications.
Police from Special Branch sat by the bedside and guarded the door.
No visitors were allowed.
The cottage was raided and "turned over," many books and private papers were confiscated.
Army intelligence interrogated the two boys for several hours.
The corporal was instructed not to mention the van as being involved in the accident.
Six days later Lawrence died and two days later an inquest was held under top security which lasted only two hours.
The boys denied ever seeing a black van which contradicted the statement by the army corporal who was the principal witness.
But no attempts were made to trace the vehicle and the jury gave a verdict of "accidental death."
He was buried that same afternoon.
- TE Lawrence's Dorset cottage given extra protection | World news | The Guardian:
In May 1935 Lawrence rode away from Clouds Hill on the last of his series of powerful Brough Superior motorbikes and died in circumstances that are still debated.
Officially he skidded trying to avoid two boys in the road, but some believe he killed himself.
The rooms had many bookshelves and comfortable reading chairs, but the sleeping space was two woollen sleeping bags embroidered with the words meum and tuum – mine and yours – on a sort of leather shelf.
The spare sleeping bag, which is said to have been occupied on at least one occasion by George Bernard Shaw, was stolen from the house after David Lean’s Oscar-winning film made Lawrence even more famous in the 1960s, and returned years later with an apologetic note, in a parcel posted in Belgium.
Shaw and his wife were extremely fond of Lawrence, who regularly rode his motorbike the 150 miles between Dorset and Shaw’s Corner, the Irish playwright’s home in Hertfordshire, to visit them.
The odder triangular relationships in literary history - between George Bernard Shaw, Lawrence of Arabia, and a classic British motorbike.
Lawrence was a dashing motor cyclist, covering thousands of miles on a succession of Brough Superiors.
Shaw, safer on his bicycle with the specially lengthened frame to fit his spindleshanks, was the terror of the village on his two stroke, frequently colliding with stationary objects or falling off.
...Shaw's death in the house, in November 1950, after he fell out of an apple tree at the age of 94.
Brough Superiors
- Only 3,000 were built, of which an estimated 1,000 survive - Lawrence owned seven different versions of these hand-built bikes - with a price tag to match, usually between £100 and £185 – the average annual salary or the price of a small house in the 1920s).
One of Lawrence’s first trips on George VI would have been to Clouds Hill.
He also made regular journeys between his base in Plymouth to London, covering the 235 miles in under five hours and often riding at speeds in excess of 90 mph.
Lady Nancy Astor would also be seen riding pillion around the streets of Plymouth, where she was an MP – much to the bemusement of the locals.
- http://www.telsociety.org.uk/places-to-visit/dorset/
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motorbikes/11593356/Lawrence-of-Arabias-last-ride.html
- http://www.telstudies.org/reference/memorials.shtml
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