Precily subsp;had the paragraph inally stood from the printer''s hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himlf and his family, the words, after the date of Mary''s birth--"Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the ty of Somert," and by inrting most accurately the day of the month on whibsp;he had lost his wife.
Then followed the history and ri of the a and respectable family, in the usual terms; how it had been first ttled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, rving the offibsp;of high sheriff, reprenting a bh in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baro, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; f altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and cluding with the arms and motto:--"Principal at, Kellynbsp;Hall, in the ty of Somert," and Sir Walter''s handwriting again in this finale:--
Precily subsp;had the paragraph inally stood from the printer''s hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himlf and his family, the words, after the date of Mary''s birth--"Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the ty of Somert," and by inrting most accurately the day of the month on whibsp;he had lost his wife.
Then followed the history and ri of the a and respectable family, in the usual terms; how it had been first ttled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, rving the offibsp;of high sheriff, reprenting a bh in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baro, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; f altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and cluding with the arms and motto:--"Principal at, Kellynbsp;Hall, in the ty of Somert," and Sir Walter''s handwriting again in this finale:--
"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the d 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 appearanbsp;than he did, nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the plabsp;he held in society. He sidered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a barobsp;and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united the gifts, was the stant objebsp;of his warmest respebsp;aion.
His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attat; sinbsp;to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing derved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, nsible and amiable; who judgement and dubsp;if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation whibsp;made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgenbsp;afterwards.--She had humoured, or softened, or cealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability for venteen years; and though not the very happiest being in the world herlf, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to attabsp;her to life, and make it no matter of indifferenbsp;to her when she was called on to quit them.--Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legabsp;for a mother to bequeath, an awful charge rather, to fide to the authority and guidanbsp;of a ceited, silly father.