Hardy-on-the-Hill

The big farm was situated on the hill—the dwelling-house, that is, for Hardy's land stretched up and down and round about almost as far as the eye could see. To say the truth the hill was but a little hill, a scarcely distinguishable mound in the midst of that fertile valley which lay between the downs and the river.

The big farmhouse, then, with all its wealth of tile-roofed outhouse and clustering stack, crowned the hilltop, and the Little Farm—the little old grey tumble-down house so seldom used nowadays, so much in need of repair, so forlorn with its ancient smokeless chimney stack and its shuttered windows