Persuasion by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

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 country of Gloucester, by which lady (who died 1800)

he was issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born

August 9, 1787; a stillborn son, November 5, 1789; Mary,

born November 20, 1791."