Chapter 22

Synopsis of chapter 22

The taste of garlic is discovered in the butter, which means there is wild garlic growing in the cows' pasture. The community turn out to eradicate it. Tess finds herself alongside Angel, and tries to recommend the virtues of the other dairymaids, even hinting at their admiration for him. She is amazed at how honourably Angel behaves towards them all.

Commentary on chapter 22

The chapter provides another genre painting of a country activity: the community working together in a single line to eradicate the weed. Other members of the dairy community are named. Tess is shown to be as self-sacrificing as she knows how towards Angel, but it is clearly not going to be enough.

dry mead: a mead or meadow is a field kept permanently as grassland to graze cattle or sheep. A water-mead is one near the river which is liable to get flooded. A dry mead is above the flood plain.

pilgrimage: see notes to Ch 10.

Vocabulary

communistically: according to the community. NB no political connotation.

consumptive: liable to T.B. or tuberculosis, a common disease mainly of the lungs, which was deadly in Victorian times

privateering: the opposite of communal behaviour; doing one's own thing

twang: strange taste, though not a strong one

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