What places did Thomas Hardy include in his fictional Wessex?

Thomas Hardy used the name "Wessex" as a collective, fictionalized designation for the counties of southwestern England.123

While Hardy’s literary Wessex is a creative construct, it is rooted in the geography of the region where he grew up, specifically the county of Dorset. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex encompassed a territory that approximated the modern counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset, eventually expanding to include Devon and Cornwall. Hardy utilized this historical regional identity to provide a consistent setting for his novels and poetry.231