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It was a still, moist night. Just before dawn he was assisted in waking by the abnormal reverberation of familiar music. To the shepherd, the note of the sheep-bell, like the ticking of the clock to other people, is a chronic sound that only makes itself noticed by ceasing or altering in some unusual manner from the well-known idle tinkle which signifies to the accustomed ear, however distant, that all is well in the fold. In the solemn calm of the awakening morn that note was heard by Gabriel, beating with unusual violence and rapidity. This exceptional ringing may be caused in two ways - by the rapid feeding of the sheep bearing the bell, as when the flock breaks into new pasture, which gives it an intermittent rapidity, or by the sheep starting off in a run, when the sound has a regular palpitation.
T. Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, MacMillan and Co. Ltd., 1906, p.39.
PLACE: England
TIME: ca. 1900
Genteel strangers, whose god was their town, who might happen to be compelled to linger about this nook for a day, heard the sound of light wheels, and prayed to see good society, to the degree of a solitary lord, or spire at the very least, but it was only Mr. Boldwood going out for the day. They heard the sound of wheels yet once more, and were reanimated to expectancy: it was Mr. Boldwood coming home again.
T. Hardy, Far From the Madding Growd, MacMillan and Co. Ltd., p. 122 - 123.
PLACE: England
TIME: ca. 1900
... she went the round to the farm paddock. Here the only sounds disturbing the stillness were steady munchings of many mouths, and stentorian breathings from all but invisible noses, ending in snores and puffs like the blowing of bellows slowly. Then the munching would recommence, when the lively imagination might assist the eye to discern a group of pink-white nostrils, shaped as caverns, and very clammy and humid on this surfaces, not exactly pleasant to the touch until one got used to them...
T. Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd, MacMillan and Co. Ltd., p. 162.
PLACE: England
TIME: ca. 1900
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