Chapter 1 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 : " 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 was called on to quit them .
-- Three girls , the two eldest sixteen and fourteen , was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath , an awful charge rather , to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited , silly father .
She had , however , one very intimate friend , a sensible , deserving woman , who had been brought , by strong attachment to herself , to settle close by her , in the village of Kellynch ; and on her kindness and advice , Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters .
This friend , and Sir Walter , did not marry , whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance .
Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot 's death , and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends , and one remained a widower , the other a widow .
That Lady Russell , of steady age and character , and extremely well provided for , should have no thought of a second marriage , needs no apology to the public , which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again , than when she does not ; but Sir Walter 's continuing in singleness requires explanation .
Be it known then , that Sir Walter , like a good father , ( having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications ) , prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughters ' sake .
For one daughter , his eldest , he would really have given up any thing , which he had not been very much tempted to do .
Elizabeth had succeeded , at sixteen , to all that was possible , of her mother 's rights and consequence ; and being very handsome , and very like himself , her influence had always been great , and they had gone on together most happily .
His two other children were of very inferior value .
Mary had acquired a little artificial importance , by becoming Mrs Charles Musgrove ; but Anne , with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character , which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding , was nobody with either father or sister ; her word had no weight , her convenience was always to give way -- she was only Anne .
To Lady Russell , indeed , she was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter , favourite , and friend .
Lady Russell loved them all ; but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again .
A few years before , Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl , but her bloom had vanished early ; and as even in its height , her father had found little to admire in her , ( so totally different were her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own ) , there could be nothing in them , now that she was faded and thin , to excite his esteem .
He had never indulged much hope , he had now none , of ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work .
All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth , for Mary had merely connected herself with an old country family of respectability and large fortune , and had therefore given all the honour and received none : Elizabeth would , one day or other , marry suitably .
It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before ; and , generally speaking , if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety , it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost .
It was so with Elizabeth , still the same handsome Miss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago , and Sir Walter might be excused , therefore , in forgetting her age , or , at least , be deemed only half a fool , for thinking himself and Elizabeth as blooming as ever , amidst the wreck of the good looks of everybody else ; for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing .
Anne haggard , Mary coarse , every face in the neighbourhood worsting , and the rapid increase of the crow 's foot about Lady Russell 's temples had long been a distress to him .
Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment .
Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall , presiding and directing with a self-possession and decision which could never have given the idea of her being younger than she was .
For thirteen years had she been doing the honours , and laying down the domestic law at home , and leading the way to the chaise and four , and walking immediately after Lady Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country .
Thirteen winters ' revolving frosts had seen her opening every ball of credit which a scanty neighbourhood afforded , and thirteen springs shewn their blossoms , as she travelled up to London with her father , for a few weeks ' annual enjoyment of the great world .
She had the remembrance of all this , she had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty to give her some regrets and some apprehensions ; she was fully satisfied of being still quite as handsome as ever , but she felt her approach to the years of danger , and would have rejoiced to be certain of being properly solicited by baronet-blood within the next twelvemonth or two .
Then might she 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 presented with the date of her own birth and see no marriage follow but that of a youngest sister , made the book an evil ; and more than once , when her father had left it open on the table near her , had she closed it , with averted eyes , and pushed it away .
She had had a disappointment , moreover , which that book , and especially the history of her own family , must ever present the remembrance of .
The heir presumptive , the very William Walter Elliot , Esq. , whose rights had been so generously supported by her father , had disappointed her .
She had , while a very young girl , as soon as she had known him to be , in the event of her having no brother , the future baronet , meant to marry him , and her father had always meant that she should .
He had not been known to them as a boy ; but soon after Lady Elliot 's death , Sir Walter had sought the acquaintance , and though his overtures had not been met with any warmth , he had persevered in seeking it , making allowance for the modest drawing-back of youth ; and , in one of their spring excursions to London , when Elizabeth was in her first bloom , Mr Elliot had been forced into the introduction .
He was at that time a very young man , just engaged in the study of the law ; and Elizabeth found him extremely agreeable , and every plan in his favour was confirmed .
He was invited to Kellynch Hall ; he was talked of and expected all the rest of the year ; but he never came .
The following spring he was seen again in town , found equally agreeable , again encouraged , invited , and expected , and again he did not come ; and the next tidings were that he was married .
Instead of pushing his fortune in the line marked out for the heir of the house of Elliot , he had purchased independence by uniting himself to a rich woman of inferior birth .