“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.”
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Published by Little, Brown and Company 1955. Page 349.
Impressions In Ink 
Hardy took the first line for his book title, didn’t he? And how fitting it is. Bathsheba and Gabriel are both practical people in some sense, and Gabriel’s connection to all things natural and simple is echoed in Hardy’s other novels too.
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