The Small House at Allington

Small House at Allington, by
Anthony Trollope

Project Gutenberg's The Small House at Allington, by Anthony
Trollope #30 in our series by Anthony Trollope
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Small House at Allington
Author: Anthony Trollope

Release Date: October, 2003 [EBook #4599] [This file was last updated
on November 17, 2002]
Edition: 11
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON ***

This etext was produced by Andrew Turek.

THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON
BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE
CHAPTER I
THE SQUIRE OF ALLINGTON
Of course there was a Great House at Allington. How otherwise should
there have been a Small House? Our story will, as its name imports,
have its closest relations with those who lived in the less dignified
domicile of the two; but it will have close relations also with the more
dignified, and it may be well that I should, in the first instance, say a
few words as to the Great House and its owner.
The squires of Allington had been squires of Allington since squires,
such as squires are now, were first known in England. From father to
son, and from uncle to nephew, and, in one instance, from second
cousin to second cousin, the sceptre had descended in the family of the
Dales; and the acres had remained intact, growing in value and not
decreasing in number, though guarded by no entail and protected by no

wonderful amount of prudence or wisdom. The estate of Dale of
Allington had been coterminous with the parish of Allington for some
hundreds of years; and though, as I have said, the race of squires had
possessed nothing of superhuman discretion, and had perhaps been
guided in their walks through life by no very distinct principles, still
there had been with them so much of adherence to a sacred law, that no
acre of the property had ever been parted from the hands of the existing
squire. Some futile attempts had been made to increase the territory, as
indeed had been done by Kit Dale, the father of Christopher Dale, who
will appear as our squire of Allington when the persons of our drama
are introduced. Old Kit Dale, who had married money, had bought
outlying farms--a bit of ground here and a bit there--talking, as he did
so, much of political influence and of the good old Tory cause. But
these farms and bits of ground had gone again before our time. To them
had been attached no religion. When old Kit had found himself pressed
in that matter of the majority of the Nineteenth Dragoons, in which
crack regiment his second son made for himself quite a career, he found
it easier to sell than to save--seeing that that which he sold was his own
and not the patrimony of the Dales. At his death the remainder of these
purchases had gone. Family arrangements required completion, and
Christopher Dale required ready money. The outlying farms flew away,
as such new purchases had flown before; but the old patrimony of the
Dales remained untouched, as it had ever remained.
It had been a religion among them; and seeing that the worship had
been carried on without fail, that the vestal fire had never gone down
upon the hearth, I should not have said that the Dales had walked their
ways without high principle. For this religion they had all adhered, and
the new heir had ever entered in upon his domain without other
encumbrances than those with which he himself was then already
burdened. And yet there had been no entail. The idea of an entail was
not in accordance with the peculiarities of the Dale mind. It was
necessary to the Dale religion that each squire should have the power of
wasting the acres of Allington--and that he should abstain from wasting
them. I remember to have dined at a house, the whole glory and