Hurdle-making at Bere Regis 126 Woolbridge House 136 Corfe Castle, 1865 160 The Famous Tillywhim Caves, 1860 170 Corfe Castle, 1860 176 The Lonely Singer 194 The River Buddle, Lyme Regis 202 The Master Smith of Lyme Regis 218 Drake Memorial at Musbury 222 THOMAS HARDY'S DORSET CHAPTER I DORSET FOLK AND DORSET WAYS So to the land our hearts we give Till the sure magic strike, And Memory, Use, and Love make live Us and our fields alike-- That deeper than our speech and thought Beyond our reason's sway, Clay of the pit whence we were wrought Yearns to its fellow-clay. RUDYARD KIPLING. To the traveller who takes an interest in the place he visits, Dorset will prove one of the most highly attractive counties in the kingdom. To the book-lover it is a land of grand adventure, for here is the centre of the Hardy Country, the home of the Wessex Novels. It is in Dorset that ancient superstitions and curious old customs yet linger, and strange beliefs from ages long ago still survive. It is good to find that the kindly hospitality, the shrewd wisdom and dry wit, for which the peasantry in Thomas Hardy's novels are famous, have not been weakened by foolish folk who seek to be "up to date." Old drinks and dishes that represent those of our forefathers, and the mellow sound of the speech that was so dear to Raleigh and Drake, are things that are now giving way to the new order of life, alas! but they are dying hard, as behoves things which are immemorial and sacramental. The rustics are perhaps not quite so witty as they are in Hardy's _The Return of the Native_ and other novels, but they possess the robust forms and simple manners of a fine old agricultural people, while they show their spirit by the proverb, "I will not want when I have, nor, by Gor, when I ha'n't, too!" Heavy of gait, stolid of mien, and of indomitable courage, the true Wessex man is a staunch friend and a very mild enemy. He is a genial fellow and, like Danton, seems to find no use for hate. He knows that all things done in _hate_ have to be done over again. Imperturbable to the last ditch, he is rarely shaken into any exclamation of surprise or wrath. When he is, "Dang-my-ole-wig!" "Dallee!" with a strong accent on the "ee," or "Aw! dallybuttons!" are the kind of mild swear-words one hears. But when he gets into the towns he forgets these strange phrases and his dialect becomes less broad.