Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/31

Rh to be an object of affection with anybody except, to whom I owe any good I either learned or imbibed in the early part of my education. My grandfather died leaving the foundation of three families. His eldest son inherited the family estate, which would amount to £20,000 a year at this time if it had not been dissipated by his son, the present Earl of Kerry, who is likely to die leaving a very ancient title without an acre of land out of so much which has escaped so long. His second son, my father, inherited from him what then amounted to nearly £3000 a year, and, being improvable, now produces about £6000 a year, which my father left to my brother on account of my inheriting from him the Petty Estates, for want of heirs male under the will of my grand uncle,.

"My father was forty-five years old when he emerged from the state of slavery and feudal habits which have been described. He had been bred at Westminster School, and I do not know by what accident, passed some time afterwards in the south of France, but was obliged to spend most of his years in attendance upon his father in his Court of Lixnaw, where he could not acquire many new ideas in an ignorant neighbourhood,