Page:Remarkable history of the miser of Berkshire- John Elwes, Esq..pdf/6

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lived to realize above one hundred thousand pounds. In youth he had been given over for a consumption, so that he had no constitution, and no passions --- He was timid, shy, and diffident in the extreme: of a thin spare habit of body, and without a friend upon earth The hoarding up and the counting his money formed the greatest joy. Next to that was partridge setting; at which he was so great an adept, and game was then so plentiful, that he has been known to take five hundred brace of birds in one season! - But he lived upon partridges, he and his whole household, consisting of one man and two maids. What they could not eat, he turned loose again, as he never gave any thing away to his neighbours. Sr Harvey and his man never missed a day, during the partridge season, if the weather was tolerable; and his breed of dogs being remarkably good, In seldom failed taking great quantities of game.

At times he wore a black velvet cap much over his face; a worn out full-dressed suit of cloaths, and an old great coat, with worsted stockings drawn up over his knees he rode a thin thoroughbred horse, and the horse and his rider both looked as if a gust of wind would have blown then a way together When the weather was not fine enough to tempt him abroad, he would walk backwards and forwards in his old hall, to save the expense of fire. If a farmer in his neighbourhood came in on business, he would strike a light in a tinder-box that he kept by him, and putting one single stick