Thomas Hardy

          Thomas Hardy was born on June2, 1840. At the time of his birth, the old family of Hardy was poor and barely above the status of the laboring class. Hardy was the eldest of four children. Too frail for school attendance, he was taught first by his mother, then in the private school of the lady of the manor. At eight, he was strong enough to enter the village school, whose master was competent and beloved. Regular church attendance, family participation in singing and playing musical instruments at church services and village functions, and inveterate walking and reading taught literary, biblical, and local lore to a child sensitive enough to receive and store it.