Augusta Way was 'Tess Durbeyfield' of the novel. In the book, Tess was the eldest daughter in a poor, rural working family - a fresh, pretty country girl with a good heart and a sensitive soul.
The middle-aged woman pictured below with her husband, was just 18 when Hardy spotted her milking a cow on a Wessex farm.
Historic character: Augusta Way with her husband Arthur Bugler. Years before this picture was taken, Augusta helped inspire Thomas Hardy to pen Tess of the D'urbervilles when she was spotted milking a cow on a Wessex farm
He was so attracted to the beautiful teenager that he had her in mind three years later when he wrote his famous novel in 1891.