Possible Clues:

• Old kingdom, new Earl
• Saxon kingdom that lasted up to the Norman Conquest
• Of which Alfred the Great was king
• Being into women, cross literary county
• It was Alfred's responsibility to stitch up relations
• Hardy country for an earl
• Southwest English counties, especially Dorset, in Thomas Hardy's works
• Start to wish county was on the other side of country
• South-west counties of Hardy's novels
• Old British kingdom