



Produced by John Hamm and David Widger








THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

by Thomas Hardy




1.


One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached
one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a
child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper
Wessex, on foot. They were plainly but not ill clad, though