358 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE 



persistent " Squatters." It is called by the queer 

 name of "Dick o' the Banks," after some "rude 

 forefather of the hamlet," who had spent his life 

 in erecting, or keeping in repair, the banks of sand 

 covered with gorse and heather, which, there- 

 abouts, serve the purpose of hedges. A lady whom 

 I know intimately, on entering a cottage there, 

 expressed her admiration for an extra large pewter 

 teapot which stood in a corner cupboard. " Ah 

 ma'am," said the owner, " I wouldn't part with 

 he for anything ; he've a' seen more than any of 

 them. Now, how many funerals do you think he 

 have attended? Seventeen yes, seventeen." The 

 teapot in question had, evidently, done duty, not only 

 when a member of the family, but when any 

 inhabitant of the hamlet, passed away, and was 

 valued accordingly. 



Men and women alike are often racy in their 

 language. The cleverness of the retorts and 

 repartees in Mr Thomas Hardy's dialogues, is not 

 to be put down entirely to his dramatic genius. 

 They are drawn from the life, and are redolent, as 

 everyone who knows the county feels, of the climate 

 and the soil. I have known labourers at Stafford 

 I know others at Bingham's Melcombe who could 

 hold their own in any such dialogue. A labouring 



