"Yes," said Mrs. Dale, putting her hands to her ears in implied rebuke at
the loudness of the squire's tone. "My dear sir, do remember that I'm a
sad nervous creature."

"Beg pardon," muttered Mr. Hazeldean, turning to his son, who having got
tired of the caricatures, had fished out for himself the great folio
County History, which was the only book in the library that the squire
much valued, and which he usually kept under lock and key, in his study,
together with the field-books and steward's accounts, but which he had
reluctantly taken into the drawing-room that day, in order to oblige
Captain Higginbotham. For the Higginbothams--an old Saxon family, as the
name evidently denotes--had once possessed lands in that very county; and
the captain, during his visits to Hazeldean Hall, was regularly in the
habit of asking to look into the County History, for the purpose of
refreshing his eyes, and renovating his sense of ancestral dignity, with
the following paragraph therein:

To the left of the village of Dunder, and pleasantly situated in a
hollow, lies Botham Hall, the residence of the ancient family of
Higginbotham, as it is now commonly called. Yet it appears by the
county rolls, and sundry old deeds, that the family formerly styled
itself Higges, till the Manor House lying in Botham, they gradually
assumed the appellation of Higges-in-Botham, and in process of time,
yielding to the corruptions of the vulgar, Higginbotham."

"What, Frank! my County History!" cried the squire. "Mrs. H., he has got
my County History!"

"Well, Hazeldean, it is time he should know something about the county."