terbridge_. A large
old-fashioned house near St. Peter's Church seems to correspond to
Lucetta's residence--High Place Hall. Then, the comfortable bay-windows
of the "King's Arms," an old hostelry belonging to coaching days,
suggests recollections of Henchard, who dined there on the occasion of
the memorable banquet, when he threw down the challenge so quickly taken
up by Farfrae.

Going up South Street one passes on the right the Grammar School,
founded in 1579 by a certain Thomas Hardy, an ancestor of all the Dorset
Hardys--Nelson's friend and the Wessex novelist being the most
distinguished among them. Mr. Thomas Hardy lives in a new red house
known as "Max Gate," which is situated a short distance from Dorchester.
Eight miles away from the town is the village of Puddletown, known as
"Weatherbury" in _Far from the Madding Crowd_. The church Mr. Hardy
describes in his novel can be seen, but Warren's malt-house was
destroyed more than twenty years ago. St. Peter's Church, Dorchester, of
the Perpendicular period, has a Norman porch and contains two
cross-legged recumbent effigies.

[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._

DORCHESTER.

The centre of Mr. Thomas Hardy's "Wessex."]

TINTERN ABBEY

=How to get there.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Rly.
=Nearest Station.=--Tintern.
=Distance from London.=--145-1/2 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 4-3/4 to 6 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 24s. 6d. 15s. 4d. 12s. 2-1/2d.
Return 42s. 9d. 26s. 10d. 24s. 5d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Beaufort Arms Hotel," "Royal
George Hotel," "Rose and Crown Hotel," at Chepstow, 5-1/2 miles
distant by road.

Tintern Abbey is situated in a level valley, surrounded on all sides by
high green pastures and wooded hills, at the bottom of which the
glorious river Wye glides in its circuitous course to the sea. The abbey
is said to share with Melrose the distinction of being the most
picturesque and beautiful ecclesiastical ruin in Great Britain. When the
sun is setting, or better still, under the mystic light of the harvest
moon, the picture formed by the roofless abbey in its perfect setting,
needs a Wordsworth to do it justice.

An abbey for Cistercian monks was established on this spot in 1131 by
Walter Fitz-Richard de Clare and dedicated to St. Mary. None of this
building remains, as the whole edifice was rebuilt about 1260. The chief
part of the ruin