The opposition to the successful party, that of William of Orange, of course brought them into disgrace; and though they were never molested on that account, they retired to their estate, and found it convenient to be as unobtrusive as possible. Thenceforward you heard no more of the Rockvilles in the national annals. They became only of consequence in their own district. They acted as magistrates; they served as high-sheriffs; they were a substantial county family, and nothing more. Education and civilisation advanced; a wider and very different field of action and ambition opened upon the aristocracy of England. Our fleets and armies abroad; our legislature at home; law and the church, presented brilliant paths to the ambition of those thirsting for distinction, and the good things that follow it. But somehow the Rockvilles did not expand with this expansion. So long as it required only a figure of six feet high, broad shoulders and a strong arm, they were a great and conspicuous race; but when the head became the member most in request, they ceased to go a-head. Younger sons, it is true, served in army and navy, and filled the family pulpit, but they produced no generals, no admirals, no archbishops. The Rockvilles of Rockville were very conservative, very exclusive, and very stereotype. Other families grew poor, and enriched themselves again by marrying plebeian heiresses. New families grew up out of plebeian blood into greatness, and intermingled the vigour of their first earth with the attenuated aristocratic soil. Men of family became great lawyers, great statesmen, great prelates, and even great poets and philosophers. The Rockvilles remained high, proud, bigoted, and _bornés_. The Rockvilles married Rockvilles, or their first cousins the Cliffvilles, simply to prevent property going out of the family. They kept the property together; they did not lose an acre; and they were a fine, tall, solemn race,—and nothing more. What ailed them? If you saw Sir Roger Rockville—for there was an eternal Sir Roger filling his office of high-sheriff, he had a very fine carriage, and a very fine retinue in the most approved and splendid of costumes;—if you saw him sitting on the bench at quarter-sessions, he was a tall, stately, and solemn man. If you saw Lady Rockville shopping in her handsome carriage, with very handsomely attired servants, saw her at the county ball, or on the race-stand, she was a tall, aristocratic, and stately lady. That was in the last generation—the present could boast no Lady Rockville. Great outward respect was shown to the Rockvilles on account of the length of their descent, and the breadth of their acres. They were always, when any stranger asked about them, declared, with a serious and important air, to be a very ancient, honourable, and substantial family. “Oh! a great family are the Rockvilles—a very great family.”