Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

I haven't read any Hardy in an age, so it was great to revisit one of the favourite authors from my youth. I enjoyed the melodramatic plot, typically reliant on deeply unlikely coincidence, and the usual chorus of rustics commenting on the main plot from the sidelines.

I noticed particularly any number of strange usages, which may or may not stem from Devonshire dialect. Sometimes they are brilliant - "He diminished down the hill" - but at others they are less so - "...concluded the small woman, bigly." Bigly?