Jonathan Couch remains. The "History of Polperro", (1871), issued after his death by his son, T. Q. Couch, is his chief work in this department. The stories in this book were re-used by Louisa Sarah Ann Parr in her successful novel about smuggling titled "Adam and Eve". Couch left three sons by his second wife: Richard Quiller, Thomas Quiller (father of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), and John Quiller, who all became surgeons (Quiller being their mother's maiden name and Quiller's House the family residence). Thomas practised successfully at Bodmin, and died on 23 October 1884, aged 58. He was a constant contributor to
The Woodlanders in October 1884. It was published as a serial in this magazine and in the American "Harper's Bazaar" in 1887, followed by a three-volume first edition in March of the same year. "The Woodlanders" was widely praised. It was declared by the "Saturday Review" in April 1887 to be, "the best [novel] that Hardy has written", by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "his loveliest if not his finest book", by William Lyon Phelps, "the most beautiful and most noble of Hardy's novels", and by A. Edward Newton, "one of the best novels of the last half century". The novel remained a personal