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 resoect, by contemplanting the limited remnant of the earlist patents ; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt.