The Trumpet-Major: John Loveday, A Soldier In The War With Buonaparte And Robert His Brother, First Mate In The Merchant Service; A Tale by Thomas Hardy, Paperback | Barnes & Noble The trumpet-major : John Loveday, a soldier in the war with Buonaparte... The Trumpet-Major, John Loveday: A Soldier In The War With Buonaparte, And Robert His Brother In 1867 Hardy returned to his native Dorset, whose rugged landscape was a great source of inspiration for his writing. Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote fourteen novels, including Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure