Under the Greenwood Tree; Or, The Mellstock Quire

"Under the Greenwood Tree; Or, The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School" by Thomas Hardy follows the activities of a group of west gallery musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new village schoolmistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors including Shiner and Mr Maybold, the new vicar at the parish church.