Page:Remarkable history of the miser of Berkshire- John Elwes, Esq..pdf/4

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resembled; but though he was often mentioned this circumstance, neither the genius, the fortune, nor the character, of Voltaire, ever seemed to ſtrike him as worthy of envy.

Returning to England, after an absence of two or three years, he was to be introduced to his uncle, the late Sir Harvey Elwes who was then living at Stoke, in Suffolk, the most perfect picture of human penury perhaps that ever existed. In him the attempts of saving money were so extraordinary, that Mr Elwes never quite reached them, even at the most covetous period of his life. !

To this Sir Harvey Elwes he was to be heir, and of course it was policy to please him. On this account it was necessary, even in old Mr. Elwes, to masquerade a little ; and as he was at that time in the world, and its affairs, he dressed like other people. This would not have done for Sir Harvey. The nephew, therefore, used to stop at a little inn at Chelmsford, and begin to dress in character. A pair of small iron buckles, worsted stockings darned, a worn-out old coat, and a tattered waistcoat, were put on; and forwards he rode to visit his uncle : who used to contemplate him with a kind of miserable satisfaction, and seemed pleased to find his heir bidding fair to rival him in the unaccountable pursuit of avarice. There they would sit-saving souls! — with a single stick upon the fire, and with one glass of wine, occasionally, betwixt them, inveighing against the extravagance of the times; and when evening shut in, they would