Excerpt from Godfrey Merivale Being a Portion of His History And hard-drinking country squires. If they earned little they did not spend much, since London never saw them, and, great as their name sounded on their native fells and moors, they were unacquainted alike with fashion and the march of the broad world. Gross of speech, and rude of manner, yet keeping a certain physical excellence, these bumpkins swaggered, and hiccoughed and sported, and bred from generation to generation. And they bred generously and well, so that in the end what was seen to be inevitable happened. They broke their confines, swarmed over the borders of the shire, and spread in streams about the country at large. Then it was that Godfrey Merivale, who as the owner of Pontrack was properly regarded as the head of that clan, shut up his castle, cleared out most of his kinsmen, and came up to London, under the influence, it may be, of some more adventurous ancestor. This was in the reign of William L, when solid men of common sense were in request rather than brisk wits and indecent elegance. Godfrey Merivale's tall body and strong face helped in his advancement; he was pitchforked into a position at the Treasury, through the offices of a great nobleman, and, gaining somehow a reputation for honesty, as well as for financial ability, died Sir Godfrey, and the first baronet of his line. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.