But on August 9, 1856, Dorchester was particularly packed. But this was not a time for trading or haggling or errands. It was time for morbid entertainment – the execution of a woman scorned, Elizabeth Martha Brown. Some 3,000 to 4,000 people packed into North Square to witness her death; the last public hanging of a woman in Dorset. Not only has Martha Brown gone down in history, she is also immortalised in fiction. For one of the faces making up the crowd would become a famous writer and get the inspiration for his novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, from this event. Author and researcher Rosemary Ellerbeck said: “The main reason for the fascination with Martha Brown is that Thomas Hardy, aged 16, witnessed her execution.