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Driving out of Budmouth, p. 196
R. Knight
1878
Wood engraving
14 cm high by 10 cm wide
Eleventh illustration for Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree, facing page 196 (recto)
See below for passage illustrated and commentary.
Photograph, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham
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Dick's spirits having risen in the course of these admissions of his sweetheart, he now touched Smart with the whip; and on Smart's neck, not far behind his ears. Smart, who had been lost in thought for some time, never dreaming that Dick could reach so far with a whip which, on this particular journey, had never been extended farther than his flank, tossed his head, and scampered along with exceeding briskness, which was very pleasant to the young couple behind him till, turning a bend in the road, they came instantly upon the farmer, farmer's man, and farmer's wife with the flapping ' mantle, all jogging on just the same as ever. [Part the Third, "Summer," Chapter 2, "Further Along the Road," p. 198]
In the pre-railway age stories of Thomas Hardy, scenes involving wagons are not uncommon, and are, indeed, sometimes crucial to the plot, as in Susan and Elizabeth Jane making their way from Weydon Priors to Casterbridge in carriers' vans and farmers' wagons in The Mayor of Casterbridge, and even in structuring the narrative, as in "Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver" in the framed-tale sequence Wessex Folk. Quite by coincidence (or Providence), Dick is in Budmouth (that is, Weymouth) on business when he encounters Fancy Day, in need of a lift home. On that fateful trip, Fancy confesses that she loves him, and, after Farmer Shiner's racing past them in his shiny new gig, agrees to marry him — "if father will let me." Thus, the important aspect of the journey in the text is not the surrounding countryside, the wagon, or Smart, the horse, but the developing relationship between Fancy and Dick reflected in the considerable dialogue of the two chapters "Driving out of Budmouth" and "Further Along the Road."
In the frontispiece, Knight foreshadows this crucial journey by depicting Dick and Fancy in the tranter's covered wagon in the lower-left-hand corner. Fancy is not wearing a hat in the frontispiece, and the wagon is moving towards the left rather than the right, as here, but the images are otherwise congruent, the emphasis in each case being the horse and vehicle rather than the diminutive occupants in each case.
Hardy, Thomas. Under The Greenwood Tree. A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1870). Il. R. Knight. London: Chatto and Windus, 1878.
Hardy, Thomas. Under The Greenwood Tree, or, The Mellstock Quire — A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1872). Ed. Anna Winchcombe. Houndmills, Basingstoke, and London: Macmillan Education, 1978. [All citations from the 1878 Chatto and Windus edition have been checked against this following readily available paperback edition.]
Kay-Robinson, Denys. The Landscape of Thomas Hardy. Exeter: Webb and Bower, 1984.
Pinion, F. B. A Hardy Companion: A Guide to the Works of Thomas Hardy and Their Background. Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1968, rpt. 1984.
Wright, Sarah Bird. Thomas Hardy A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File, 2002.
Last modified 24 June 2014