Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/64

 days, a reliable indication of the worshipper-from-afar of the belles-lettrist. In this case it was founded on the deepest basic sympathy with the sturdy franklin-class, on an understanding of Hodge and his country that had its roots in inherited feelings rather than in acquired syllogisms. The country yeomanry has been called the backbone of the English nation's character. Although this observation has been repeated so often as to become an article of the British Credo, there is nevertheless some truth in it.

Late in his life the poet enshrined the more tender aspects of his spiritual debt to his mother in the poem called The Roman Road (included in his Time's Laughingstocks):