Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare. 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 (). . A middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott. By. mysterious Mrs d'Urberville had her residence. Tess Durbeyfield's route on this memorable morning lay amid the north- eastern undulations of the Vale in.