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1Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but
2the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties
3were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any
4unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the
5almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own
6history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened: "ELLIOT OF
7KELLYNCH HALL. "Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq.
8of South Park, in the county of Gloucester, by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785;
9Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born November 20, 1791." Precisely such had the
10paragraph originally stood from the printer's hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of
11himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth--"Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir
12of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset," and by inserting most accurately the day of the
13month on which he had lost his wife. Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the
14usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of high sheriff,
15representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year
16of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and
17concluding with the arms and motto:--"Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," and Sir Walter's
18handwriting again in this finale:-- "Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir
19Walter." Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He
20had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of
21their personal appearance than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held
22in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter
23Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion. His good looks and his rank
24had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing
25deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they
26might be pardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgence afterwards. She had
27humoured, or softened, or concealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years; and though
28not the very happiest being in the world herself, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to
29attach her to life, and make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them. Three girls, the
30two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath, an awful charge rather, to confide to the
31authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father. She had, however, one very intimate friend, a sensible, deserving
32woman, who had been brought, by strong attachment to herself, to settle close by her, in the village of Kellynch; and on
33her kindness and advice, Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and
34instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters. This friend, and Sir Walter, did not marry, whatever
35might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance. Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot's
36death, and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends, and one remained a widower, the other a widow. That
37Lady Russell, of steady age and character, and extremely well provided for, should have no thought of a second marriage,
38needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again, than
39when she does not; but Sir Walter's continuing in singleness requires explanation. Be it known then, that Sir Walter,
40like a good father, (having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications), prided
41himself on remaining single for his dear daughters' sake. For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up
42any thing, which he had not been very much tempted to do. Elizabeth had succeeded, at sixteen, to all that was possible,
43of her mother's rights and consequence; and being very handsome, and very like himself, her influence had always been
44great, and they had gone on together most happily. His two other children were of very inferior value. Mary had acquired
45a little artificial importance, by becoming Mrs Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of
46character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or
47sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way--she was only Anne. To Lady Russell, indeed, she
48was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter, favourite, and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in
49Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again. A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but
50her bloom had vanished early; and as even in its height, her father had found little to admire in her, (so totally
51different were her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own), there could be nothing in them, now that she was
52faded and thin, to excite his esteem. He had never indulged much hope, he had now none, of ever reading her name in any
53other page of his favourite work. All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth, for Mary had merely connected
54herself with an old country family of respectability and large fortune, and had therefore given all the honour and
55received none: Elizabeth would, one day or other, marry suitably. It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at
56twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it
57is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth, still the same handsome Miss Elliot
58that she had begun to be thirteen years ago, and Sir Walter might be excused, therefore, in forgetting her age, or, at
59least, be deemed only half a fool, for thinking himself and Elizabeth as blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good
60looks of everybody else; for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing. Anne
61haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting, and the rapid increase of the crow's foot about Lady
62Russell's temples had long been a distress to him. Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment.
63Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall, presiding and directing with a self-possession and decision which
64could never have given the idea of her being younger than she was. For thirteen years had she been doing the honours,
65and laying down the domestic law at home, and leading the way to the chaise and four, and walking immediately after Lady
66Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country. Thirteen winters' revolving frosts had seen her
67opening every ball of credit which a scanty neighbourhood afforded, and thirteen springs shewn their blossoms, as she
68travelled up to London with her father, for a few weeks' annual enjoyment of the great world. She had the remembrance of
69all this, she had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets and some apprehensions; she was
70fully satisfied of being still quite as handsome as ever, but she felt her approach to the years of danger, and would
71have rejoiced to be certain of being properly solicited by baronet-blood within the next twelvemonth or two. Then might
72she again take up the book of books with as much enjoyment as in her early youth, but now she liked it not. Always to be
73presented with the date of her own birth and see no marriage follow but that of a youngest sister, made the book an
74evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table near her, had she closed it, with averted eyes,
75and pushed it away.
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