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HOMAS HARDY, who was born at a Dorsetshire village, was educated as an architect in his native place, at the same time giving much attention to literary studies. At twenty-one he came to London, where he continued to study design under Sir Arthur Blomfield, A.R.A., and modern languages at King's College. At twenty-two he gained several prizes and medals for designs, and also wrote much poetry which he never published. At thirty-one he wrote his first novel, "Desperate Remedies," and at thirty-four "Far from the Madding Crowd," his masterpiece, in which the humours and pathos of agricultural life are displayed in a manner which has had no equal.