nearly eight o'clock
The attempts -- successful and otherwise -- at cultivation on the lower slopes , which intrude and break up the original heath into small detached heaths , had not been carried far ; Enclosure Acts had not taken effect , and the banks and fences which now exclude the cattle of those villagers who formerly enjoyed rights of commonage thereon , and the carts of those who had turbary privileges which kept them in firing all the year round , were not erected . Gertrude , therefore , rode along with no other obstacles than the prickly furze bushes , the mats of heather , the white water-courses , and the natural steeps and declivities of the ground . Her horse was sure , if heavy-footed and slow , and though a draught animal , was easy-paced ; had it been otherwise , she was not a woman who could have ventured to ride over such a bit of country with a half-dead arm . It was therefore nearly eight o'clock when she drew rein to breathe the mare on the last outlying high point of heath-land towards Casterbridge , previous to leaving Egdon for the cultivated valleys . She halted before a pool called Rushy-pond , flanked by the ends of two hedges ; a railing ran through the centre of the pond , dividing it in half . Over the railing she saw the low green country ; over the green trees the roofs of the town ; over the roofs a white flat facade , denoting the entrance to the county jail . On the roof of this front specks were moving about ; they seemed to be workmen erecting something .