Furze Swann 
took a captive coach-load of conference participants on a 5-hour death march around Tess sites. We drove miles and miles past the big and little dairies, listening to Furze read passages describing cows and barns and sheep fairs and hillsides, as our poor driver maneuvered past tractors and lorries. Here is the Wool Bridge, 
over which Tess and Angel walked after they married, and the site of their first fatal night together (fictional, of course). 
Hardy fans are as insane as any others, if not more so--we clustered around Furze as he pointed out relevant geographical spots from Bulburrow heights, and the day grew more and more hazy and hot. 
The air conditioning was inadequate, particularly in the back over the engine, where John and I were sitting, and feeling myself dehydrate (stupid blood pressure meds) I soon drank both my bottles of fluid. Four and ½ hours later, and no toilet in sight, the back row staged a mutiny, and the warden of the next church site (Rampisham Church, 
where Hardy accomplished his architectural apprenticeship by restoring the bell tower) allowed us to use the bathroom in his home.
took a captive coach-load of conference participants on a 5-hour death march around Tess sites. We drove miles and miles past the big and little dairies, listening to Furze read passages describing cows and barns and sheep fairs and hillsides, as our poor driver maneuvered past tractors and lorries. Here is the Wool Bridge, over which Tess and Angel walked after they married, and the site of their first fatal night together (fictional, of course). Hardy fans are as insane as any others, if not more so--we clustered around Furze as he pointed out relevant geographical spots from Bulburrow heights, and the day grew more and more hazy and hot. The air conditioning was inadequate, particularly in the back over the engine, where John and I were sitting, and feeling myself dehydrate (stupid blood pressure meds) I soon drank both my bottles of fluid. Four and ½ hours later, and no toilet in sight, the back row staged a mutiny, and the warden of the next church site (Rampisham Church, where Hardy accomplished his architectural apprenticeship by restoring the bell tower) allowed us to use the bathroom in his home.
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