He found the word in the pages of early English history as a designation for an extinct, pre-Norman conquest kingdom, the Wessex from which Alfred the Great established England. In the first edition, the word "Wessex" is used only once, in chapter 50; Hardy extended the reference for the 1895 edition. Hardy himself wrote: “I am reminded that it was in the chapters of "Far from the Madding Crowd"… that I first ventured to adopt the word ‘Wessex’ from the pages of early English history… – a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children.”