e vowed all the portraits to be, and when questioned as to
the history of the originals, would vaguely say they were 'ancestors of
his.' You could see by his wife's looks that she disbelieved in
these genealogical legends, for she generally endeavoured to turn the
conversation when he commenced them. But his little boy believed them to
their fullest extent, and Roger Pendennis of Agincourt, Arthur Pendennis
of Crecy, General Pendennis of Blenheim and Oudenarde, were as real
and actual beings for this young gentleman as--whom shall we
say?--as Robinson Crusoe, or Peter Wilkins, or the Seven Champions of
Christendom, whose histories were in his library.

Pendennis's fortune, which, at the best, was not above eight hundred
pounds a year, did not, with the best economy and management, permit
of his living with the great folks of the county; but he had a decent
comfortable society of the second-best sort. If they were not the roses,
they lived near the roses, as it were, and had a good deal of the odour
of genteel life. They had out their plate, and dined each other round
in the moonlight nights twice a year, coming a dozen miles to these
festivals; and besides the county, the Pendennises had the society of
the town of Clavering, as much as, nay, more than they liked: for Mrs.
Pybus was always poking about Helen's conservatories, and intercepting
the operation of her soup-tickets and coal-clubs Captain Glanders (H.
P., 50th Dragoon Guards) was for ever swaggering about the Squire's
stables and gardens, and endeavouring to enlist him in his quarrels
with the Vicar, with the Postmaster, with the Reverend F. Wapshot
of Clavering Grammar School, for overflogging his son, Anglesea
Glanders,--with all the village in fine. And Pendennis and his wife
often blessed themselves, that their house of Fairoaks was nearly a mile
out of Clavering, or their premises would never have been free from
the prying eyes and prattle of one or other of the male and female
inhabitants there.

Fairoaks lawn comes down to the little river Brawl, and on the other
side were the plantations and woods (as much as were left of them) of
Clavering Park, Sir Francis Clavering, Bart. The park was let out in
pasture and fed down by sheep and cattle, when the Pendennises came
first to live at Fairoaks. Shutters were up in the house; a splendid
freestone palace, with great stairs, statues, and porticos, whereof you
may see a picture in the 'Beauties of England and