Classics Retold

An idiom meaning using one's position, opportunities, or resources to enrich oneself, often in a selfish and dishonest style.  The image comes from a bird lining its nest with feathers to make it comfortable.  Applied to people, it  suggests someone is making their own situations comfortable or profitable at others expenses. In Hardy's novel Far From The Madding Crowd, the phrase usually carries a critical or disapproving tone, implying greed, self-interest, or abuse of trust. It is general opinion of the parish people that Gabriel Oak was feathering his nest using the resources of Boldwood and Bathsheba. 

Mosses (Bryophyta) are ancient non-vascular plants.  They lack true woody tissues, roots or circulatory system.  In woodland they thrive on decaying logs and tree trunks.  They utilise these surfaces syrictly for structural support and moisture, rather than drawing nutrients from the wood itself.  Wood dewlling mosses act as natural sponges.  They absorb and slowly release moisture into the microclimate.  They provide habitat for diverse woodland insects, amphibians, and fungi and create natural seedbeds for other plant life to germinate.

Far From The Madding Crowd Chapter 49 Open spaces or clearings within a wood or forest, often grassy and pleasant-looking, are called glades. The term comes from the landscape vocabulary of rural England.  A glade is not completely open, rather it is a break in trees where light enters, creating a sheltered, picturesque opening.  With glades Hardy creates mood and symbolism.  A glade can suggest a momentary opening among darkness and confusion.  It is a spot of beauty and tranquility.  The nature is being carpeted with dead leaves. Every part of the woodland was blanketed with fallen leaves.

Bathsheba underwent the absence of her husband from hours to days with a slight feeling of surprise and relief. But she was not indifferent to her status as a married woman.  She belonged to him. The certainties of that position were well defined. For the first time she was aware that she was not an independent woman. Soon or later her husband would be home again. She had been in doubt about what the  legal effects of her marriage would be upon her position; but no notice had been taken as yet of her change of name, and only one point was clear, that in the event of her own or of her husband's inability to meet the agent at the forthcoming January Rent-day , very little consideration would be shown, and for that matter very little would be deserved.  Once out of the farm, poverty would be sure.  Bathsheba lived in a perception that her purposes were broken off.  Her mistake had been a fatal one, she accepted her position and waited coldly.  The first Satur...

Burgher is an old fashioned term for a well-to-do resident of a town. It originally refered to a privileged member of a European town.  Burghers are members of burgh or borough. Burgher and Burgess are closely related words, and are derived from the medieval idea of burgh or borough.  However, they developed slightly with different meanings.  A burgher is an inhabitant of town or borough.  More specifically, a respected citizen of the urban middle class - often a merchant, trader, or property earned towns man.  In literature, the word burgher evokes the image of a prosperous, solid, somewhat conservative citizen.  Burgess originally meant a free man or a citizen of a borough.  Later, it extended to an official representative of borough, especially in a local government.  When Victorian authors like Thomas Hardy use burgher, they mean a respectable urban citizen or member of commercial middle class, often with a hint of conventionality.  Both ...

In Chapter 48 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Bathsheba wonders whether she could continue to manage the estate as she has done in the past.  Hardy writes of her uncertainty about the "agent" and the coming "January rent-day."  The Agent  Agent here means a land agent or estate agent, and was often called steward.  He managed the landed property on behalf of the owner.  Collection of rents, keeping its accounts, supervising repairs and maintenance, handling legal and financial matters connected with the estate were his duties.  January Rent-day  In rural Victorian England rents were often paid on fixed quarter days rather than monthly. Rent paying day of the first quarter of the Calendar year occured around January.  The approaching rent day forces Bathsheba to confront the questions about inheritance, marriage, and legal ownership that she had previously neglected. She was unsure whether the tenancy attached any condition with regard to her marria...