midst, who some of them seemed to take for the Prince of Darkness himself, till they formed a remote circle, an empty space of floor being left between them and him...'circulus, cujus centrum deabolu'".
             Hardy also mentions an ancient instrument that was used long ago - the lute - in "The Three Strangers", again giving us an example of the ancientness of the landscape and the instruments that are used.
             "The Three Strangers" introduces us to the ancientness of the landscape "among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries." Hardy gives us other examples of the ancient landscape "some old earthen camp or barrow...some starved fragment of ancient hedge".
             Hardy uses footpaths to symbolise the many generations that have been trapped in the same landscape. "The crossing of two footpaths at right angles hard by, which may have crossed there and thus for a good five hundred years." Hardy describes in "The Three Strangers" that the 'level rainstorm smote walls, slopes, and hedges like the clothyard shafts of Senlac and Crecy". These were ancient battles in the 10
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