Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for hisown amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he foundoccupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there hisfaculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limitedremnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising fromdomestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over thealmost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leafwere powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which neverfailed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:
“ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL.
“Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth,daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester,by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne,born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November20, 1791.”
Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer’shands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himselfand his family, these words, after the date of Mary’sbirth—“Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of CharlesMusgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,” and byinserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.
Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, inthe usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned inDugdale, serving the office of high sheriff, representing a borough in threesuccessive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baron