Daniel Defoe's Description of Dorchester--Doctor Arbuthnot--St Peter's Church--Thomas Hardy of Melcombe Regis--William Barnes--Judge Jeffreys--Maumbury Rings--Mary Channing strangled and burnt--Thomas Hardy and Relics of Roman Occupation--Maiden Castle--Old Inns--The Grammar School--Napper's Mite--Hangman's Cottage--The Bull Stake--"Jopp's Cottage"--Priory Ruins--High Place Hall--Colyton House--The Mask with a Leer--Thomas Hardy and the Habits of Bridge Haunters--Dorchester Ale--"Groves" Stingo--_The Trumpet Major_--Toby Fillpot--A Dorchester Butt--_Far from the Madding Crowd_--"Yellowham Wood"--The Brown Owl--The Hedge Pig--Fordington--Church of St George--Hardy's "Mellstock"--Winterborne Villages--Original Manuscript of _Mayor of Casterbridge_--Wolverton House--Knightly Trenchards--Cerne Abbas and "The Giant" VI. A LITERARY NOTE: THOMAS HARDY AND WILLIAM BARNES 98 Hardy's Grandfather--Hardy as a Poet--Primitive Nature Worship--Prose Poem of the Cider-Maker--William Barnes--Troublous Days--"Woak Hill"--Pathetic Touch VII. BERE REGIS AND THE ANCIENT FAMILY OF TURBERVILLE 122 Yellowham Hill--"The Royal Oak" at Bere Regis--My Friend the Thatcher--The Complete Guide to Thatching--Bere Regis Church--Humorous Norman Carvings--Sepulchre of the Turbervilles--Outline of Hardy's _Tess_--A Turberville Tradition--The First of the Turbervilles--Bryant's Puddle--The Old Turberville Manor House--Descendants of the Illegitimate Turbervilles--A Flagrant Poacher--The Tyrant of the Tudor Inn--Hodge the eternally efficient--Hardy's Tess and Wellbridge Manor House--Tess's Ancestors--Smoke Pence--Superstition and Shrewdness mingled in the Rustic--"Old Gover"--The Story of the Turberville Coach--Bindon Abbey--Tess--A Sinister Old Wood VIII. ROUND AND ABOUT WEYMOUTH 147 Weymouth and Melcombe Regis--Rivalry of the Old Boroughs--George III.--The Sands--Uncle Benjy and Inflated Prices--Sandsfoot Castle--Weymouth Localities in _The Trumpet Major_--_The Dynasts_--The Dorset Rustic and Boney--The Girls of Budmouth--The "Naples of England"--Mr Harper on the Hardy Country--Georgian Houses--The Realest Things--Interesting Relics--Preston--Sutton Poyntz--_The Trumpet Major_--Overcombe Mill--To keep Dorset fair--A Soldier Poet--Bincombe--Racy Saxon Speech--Hardy on Wessex Words--Poxwell--Owermoigne--Lulworth Cove--Portisham--Admiral Hardy--Abbotsbury IX. POOLE 163 Poole Harbour--The Quay--An English Buccaneer--Brownsea-- Lytchett--"To please his Wife"--An Enjoyable Coast Ramble X. SWANAGE AND CORFE CASTLE 168