ABSTRACT
Hardy's maternal great-grandparents were John Swetman and Maria Childs. Christopher, the name of the story's protagonist, was a common name in his mother's family, and, indeed, Hardy once remarked that he would prefer to have been called Christopher rather than Thomas.2 The Swetmans had been 'yeoman landholders' in Melbury Osmond for generations, and Hardy believed that they had been 'ruined in the Monmouth Rebellion'. 3
Shortly before the story first appeared in the Saturday Review, Hardy mentioned it in a letter to Florence Henniker: 'I have a "tradition" in its Christmas supplement-quite short. Something like it occurred in my mother's family, who, from time immemorial down to 100-150 years ago, were yeomen in this county farming their own land - which now belongs to Ld Ilchester' (Letters, II, 139; the Swetman land had been absorbed into the Melbury House estates of the Earls of Ilchester, who, Hardy once remarked, had still been 'at
plow' when the Swetmans were landowners\ Nothing appears to be known about the date of the story's composition, although, as Purdy notes, it seems safe to assume that it was published as soon as possible after it was written.5
