Sir Walter Elliot,
           of Kellynch Hall,
         in Somersetshire,
           was a man who,
         for his own amusement,
           never took up any book
             but the Baronetage;
        there he found
               occupation for an idle hour,
           and consolation
               in a distressed one;
        there his faculties
            were roused
                   into admiration and respect,
           by contemplating the limited remnant
               of the earliest patents;
        there any unwelcome sensations,
           arising from domestic affairs
              changed naturally
                   into pity and contempt as
             he turned
                   over the almost endless creations
                       of the last century;
        and there,
           if every other leaf
            were powerless,
         he could read
               his own history
             with an interest
              which never failed.

    This was the page
         at which
               the favorite 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 November 20,
             1791."

    Precisely such
        had the paragraph originally
            stood from the printer's hands;
        but Sir Walter
            had improved it by adding,
           for the information of himself
               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
               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,
           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 of loyalty,
         and dignity of baronet,
           in the first year
               of Charles II,
         with all the Marys
               and Elizabeths
             they had married;
        forming altogether
               two handsome duodecimo pages,
           and concluding
               with the arms and motto:
         --"Principal seat,
               Kellynch Hall,
             in the county of Somerset,"
                   and Sir Walter's handwriting
                  again in this finale:--

    "Heir presumptive,
           William Walter Elliot,
         Esq.,
           great grandson
               of the second 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
           in his youth;
        and,
           at fifty-four,
         was still
               a very fine man.

    Few women
        could think more
               of their personal appearance than
         he did,
           nor could the valet of
               any new
              made lord
            be more
                  delighted with the place
             he held in society.

    He considered the blessing
           of beauty
         as inferior
          only to the blessing
               of a baronetcy;
        and the Sir Walter Elliot,
           who united these gifts,
         was the constant
              object of
                   his warmest respect and devotion.

    His good looks
           and his rank
        had one fair
               claim on his attachment;
        since to them
             he must have owed
                   a wife
                 of very superior character
                   to any thing
                  deserved by his own.

    Lady Elliot
        had been an excellent woman,
           sensible and amiable;
        whose judgement and conduct,
           if they
            might be
                  pardoned the youthful infatuation
              which made her Lady Elliot,
         had never
              required indulgence afterwards.

    --She had humoured,
           or softened,
         or concealed his failings,
           and promoted his real respectability
               for seventeen years;
        and though
               not the very happiest
            being in the world herself,
           had found enough
               in her duties,
         her friends,
           and her children,
         to attach her to life,
           and make it no
              matter of indifference to her
             when she