To prevent disappointment to searchers for scenery it should be added that though the action of the narrative is supposed to proceed in the central and most secluded part of the heaths united into one whole, as above described, certain topographical features resembling those delineated really lie on the margin of the waste, several miles to the westward of the centre. In some other respects also there has been a bringing together of scattered characteristics. + 

I may mention here in answer to inquiries that the Christian name of “Eustacia,” borne by the heroine of the story, was that of the Lady of the Manor of Ower Moigne, in the reign of Henry the Fourth, which parish includes part of the “Egdon Heath” of the following pages. + 

The first edition of this novel was published in three volumes in 1878. + 