Gryll Grange

The novel begins with a discussion around the dinner table of Mr. Gryll, in which his friend, the genial gourmet, the Rev. Dr. Opimian, holds forth on misnomers, fish, and the contemporary fashion for lectures. Mr. Gryll suggests that they get up an Aristophanic comedy to put on show that Christmas, in which spirit rappers bring up the shade of his supposed ancestor, Gryllus, to give them his opinion of modern times. On a walk in the adjacent woods one morning Dr. Opimian discovers that an abandoned tower known locally as "the Duke's folly," is now inhabited. The new owner, Mr. Algernon Falconer, overhears the divine who has a mania for quoting from the ancients quoting a passage from Homer comparing the tower to Circe's enchanted abode. Himself a lover of classical literature, Falconer invites the divine to dine with him. Mr. Falconer, a young bachelor, is attended by seven young women, all sisters, who serve as cooks, waitresses, and music players for him all at once. At first slightly disturbed, Opimian finds that his new friend is simply a genial eccentric who wishes to avoid the world in order not to discompose the equanimity of his mind; and who spends his days reading and contemplating "ideal beauty" in the form of a shrine to St. Catherine, a Christian martyr of the third century. Opimian repeats his visit to Mr. Falconer several times, and at one point encounters a local farmer's son, Harry Hedgegrow, who is in love with one of the seven sisters of the tower. When, on a later visit, a carriage bearing Mr. Gryll and his young daughter Morgana is hit by lightning near the tower, Falconer invites them in, and first forms Morgana's acquaintance. After a much prolonged stay at the tower while the latter is recovering, Gryll invites his host to stay with him during Christmas and be present at the comedy.