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CHAPTER I . The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex . Their estate was large , and their residence was at Norland Park , in the centre of their property , where , for many generations , they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance . The late owner of this estate was a single man , who lived to a very advanced age , and who for many years of his life , had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister . But her death , which happened ten years before his own , produced a great alteration in his home ; for to supply her loss , he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew Mr . Henry Dashwood , the legal inheritor of the Norland estate , and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it . In the society of his nephew and niece , and their children , the old Gentleman’s days were comfortably spent . His attachment to them all increased . The constant attention of Mr . and Mrs . Henry Dashwood to his wishes , which proceeded not merely from interest , but from goodness of heart , gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive ; and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence . By a former marriage , Mr . Henry Dashwood had one son : by his present lady , three daughters . The son , a steady respectable young man , was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother , which had been large , and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age . By his own marriage , likewise , which happened soon afterwards , he added to his wealth . To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters ; for their fortune , independent of what might arise to them from their father’s inheriting that property , could be but small . Their mother had nothing , and their father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal ; for the remaining moiety of his first wife’s fortune was also secured to her child , and he had only a life - interest in it . The old gentleman died : his will was read , and like almost every other will , gave as much disappointment as pleasure . He was neither so unjust , nor so ungrateful , as to leave his estate from his nephew ; — but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest . Mr . Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son ; — but to his son , and his son’s son , a child of four years old , it was secured , in such a way , as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him , and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate , or by any sale of its valuable woods .
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