Read it through once

I cannot pretend to give any account of the origin of the family of the Rackrents; I only know that, in my grandfather’s time, they were a very thriving set, and that Sir Patrick, the present baronet, had succeeded to a large estate by the marriage of his father with an heiress. The Rackrents were originally of Norman extraction: they came into this country with the conqueror; and, from the time that they settled, they always lived at Castle Rackrent, and were looked upon as something superior to their neighbours.