How did Thomas Hardy meet Emma Lavinia Gifford?

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Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy first met Emma Lavinia Gifford in March 1870 while he was working as an architect. He had been sent to Cornwall to conduct an architectural assessment of the dilapidated Church of St. Juliot. It was there that he encountered the rector's vivacious sister-in-law, Emma, in what he later described as romantic circumstances.1