Ashton Priory — Anonymous

Anonymous British novel from 1792. "Sir Bevil Grimstone had passed the meridian of life without having entered into the matrimonial connection. In the younger part of his life he had possessed the advantages of a showy person, an assured air, together with that facility of utterance, which, though certainly not wit, nor any ways related thereto, often passes with the multitude for the quality itself; -of course, he had figured in the beau monde with no inconsiderable eclat: but time, whose depredations, all things, sooner or later, confess, had wrought some unfriendly effects on the figure of the baronet; such as undermining a tooth or two, sallowing the freshness of his complexion, and planting a few wrinkles in his forehead. Yet, in spite of all, (as habit is allowed to become by long indulgence a sort of second nature, ) his passion for dress still existed, though the smiles of the female world had long since been transferred to beaux of a more recent generation. "