What are these stones?

What are these stones that lie loose
to trip my footfall?
These stones with treasure hidden in their centre,
shiny, blue-grey flint
gleaming from within an innocuous, pebble-like rock.
Are these the same stones
the innocent Tess walked on
towards her dangerous adventures?
And is this rolling landscape
with ripening wheat fields
the same that Hardy knew as
he depicted Tess and her Angel?
They would not recognise the distant mechanical hum
of the combine harvester collecting the wheat,
but would they know the trees with
the same secrets to share
in an ivy-clad hush?
And in years to come,
when another Hardy strolls
these lanes and gazes appreciatively
over the undulating hills,
will he stop in wonder
to select a treasure
from beneath his footfall,
shiny, blue-grey flint
gleaming from within an innocuous, pebble-like rock?

© 7 August 2013