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

M. E. Francis was the pen name of Mary Elizabeth Blundell (née Sweetman; 1859 - 9 March 1930)