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Persuasion
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| 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 favourite volume always
opened: |
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"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:--
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| "Heir
presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq.,
great grandson of the second Sir Walter." |
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  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.
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this is it
