Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare. . A middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott. Thomas Hardy's use of the Wessex county dialect plays a key role in much of his narrative fictional dialogue, as shown in Tess of the D'Urbervilles (). mysterious Mrs d'Urberville had her residence. By. Tess Durbeyfield's route on this memorable morning lay amid the north- eastern undulations of the Vale in.