Browse phrases beginning with:
[A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z]
Far from the madding crowd
Meaning
A quiet and rural place.
Origin
This phrase is best known as the title of one of Thomas Hardy's most successful novels. Hardy took the title from Thomas Gray's poem - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:
'Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.'
It is possible that Gray was also alluding to earlier works: by William Drummond, circa 1614:
"Farre from the madding Worldlings hoarse discords."
or by Edmund Spenser, 1579:
"But now from me hys madding mynd is starte, And woes the Widdowes daughter of the glenne."
Whether Gray was referring to a specific churchyard isn't clear. It is well recorded though that Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was written, at least in part, in a churchyard at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire.