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The Complete Novel with Illustrations
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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:
"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." — Chapter 1 excerpt, Persuasion by Jane Austen
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