ever fun is
going on.

In the middle of this pleasant land lies the manor of Kencote, and a
good many fat acres around it, which have come to the Clintons from time
to time, either by lucky marriages or careful purchase, during the close
upon six hundred years they have been settled there. For they are an old
family and in their way an important one, although their actual
achievements through all the centuries in which they have enjoyed wealth
and local consideration fill but a small page in their family history.

The Squire had, in the strong room of the Bathgate and Medchester Bank,
in deed-boxes at his lawyers, and in drawers and chests and cupboards in
his house, papers worthy of the attention of the antiquary. From time to
time they did engage the antiquary's attention, and, scattered about in
bound volumes of antiquarian and genealogical magazines, in the
proceedings of learned societies, and in county histories, you may find
the fruits of much careful and rewarding research through these various
documents. When the Squire was approached by some one who wished to
write a paper or read a paper, or compile a genealogy, or carry out any
project for the purposes of which it was necessary to gain access to the
Clinton archives, he would express his annoyance to his family. He would
say that he wished these people would let him alone. The fact was that
there were so few really old families left in England, that people like
himself who had lived quietly on their property for eight or nine
hundred years, or whatever it might be, had to bear all the brunt of
these investigations, and it was really becoming an infernal nuisance.
But he would always invite the antiquary to Kencote, give him a bottle
of fine claret and his share of a bottle of fine port, and every
facility for the pursuit of his inquiries.

_A History of the Ancient and Knightly Family of Clinton of Kencote in
the County of Meadshire_, was compiled about a hundred years ago by the
Reverend John Clinton Smith, M.A., Rector of Kencote, and published by
Messrs. Dow and Runagate of Paternoster Row. It is not very accurate,
but any one interested in such matters can, with due precaution taken,
gain from it valuable information concerning the twenty-two generations
of Clintons who have lived and ruled at Kencote since Sir Giles de
Clinton acquired the manor in the reign of Edward I.

The learned Rector devoted a considerable part of his folio volume to
tracing