Publisher's Synopsis
Chapter 1Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; therehe found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressedone; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, bycontemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there anyunwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturallyinto pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creationsof the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, hecould read his own history with an interest which never failed. Thiswas 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 ofGloucester, by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, bornJune 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5,1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791."Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer'shands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information ofhimself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth--"Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset," and by inserting mostaccurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectablefamily, in the usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire;how mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of high sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions ofloyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, withall the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether twohandsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms andmotto: --"Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," andSir Walter's handwriting again in this finale: --"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of thesecond Sir Walter."Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character;vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome inhis youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few womencould think more of their personal appearance than he did, nor couldthe valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he heldin society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only tothe blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who unitedthese gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect anddevotion.His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; sinceto them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to anything deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might bepardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot, had neverrequired indulgence afterwards.--She had humoured, or softened, orconcealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability forseventeen years; and though not the very happiest being in the worldherself, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to attach her to life, and make it no matter of indifference to herwhen she was called on to quit them.--Three girls, the two eldestsixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath, anawful charge rather, to confide to the authority and guidance of aconceited, silly father. She had, however, one very intimate friend, asensible, deserving woman, who had been brought, by strong attachmentto herself, to settle close by her, in the village of Kellynch; and onher kindness and advice,