ds neat; but now they are
overgrown with nettles, and sunk nearly flat. The older villagers,
however, who know of the episode from their parents, still recollect the
place where the soldiers lie. Phyllis lies near.

_October_ 1889.

THE FIDDLER OF THE REELS

'Talking of Exhibitions, World's Fairs, and what not,' said the old
gentleman, 'I would not go round the corner to see a dozen of them
nowadays. The only exhibition that ever made, or ever will make, any
impression upon my imagination was the first of the series, the parent of
them all, and now a thing of old times--the Great Exhibition of 1851, in
Hyde Park, London. None of the younger generation can realize the sense
of novelty it produced in us who were then in our prime. A noun
substantive went so far as to become an adjective in honour of the
occasion. It was "exhibition" hat, "exhibition" razor-strop,
"exhibition" watch; nay, even "exhibition" weather, "exhibition" spirits,
sweethearts, babies, wives--for the time.

'For South Wessex, the year formed in many ways an extraordinary
chronological frontier or transit-line, at which there occurred what one
might call a precipice in Time. As in a geological "fault," we had
presented to us a sudden bringing of ancient and modern into absolute
contact, such as probably in no other single year since the Conquest was
ever witnessed in this part of the country.'

These observations led us onward to talk of the different personages,
gentle and simple, who lived and moved within our narrow and peaceful
horizon at that time; and of three people in particular, whose queer
little history was oddly touched at points by the Exhibition, more
concerned with it than that of anybody else who dwelt in those outlying
shades of the world, Stickleford, Mellstock, and Egdon. First in
prominence among these three came Wat Ollamoor--if that were his real
name--whom the seniors in our party had known well.

He was a woman's man, they said,--supremely so--externally little else.
To men be was not attractive; perhaps a little repulsive at times.
Musician, dandy, and company-man in practice; veterinary surgeon in
theory, he lodged awhile in Mellstock village, coming from nobody knew
where; though some said his first appearance in this neighbourhood had
been as fiddle-player in a show at Greenhill Fair.

Many a worthy villager envied him his power over unsophisticated
maidenhood--a power which seemed sometimes to have a