Difference between revisions of "Christopher Carlisle"

Revision as of 07:21, 11 July 2010

Christoper "Kit" Carlisle is a trained medical practitioner turned heir apparent to his uncle's large fortune.

Relations

Both of Kit's parents passed away young. He and his much younger sister were raised by their wealthy cousins, the Ellesmeres.

Father: Christopher Joseph Carlisle
Mother: Anne Carlisle née Fitzgerald
Sister: Josephine Christine Carlisle

Aunt: Jane Ellesmere
Uncle: Anthony Ellesmere
Cousin: Nathaniel Ellesmere
Cousin: Elinor Knowles née Ellesmere
Cousin: Prosperity Ellesmere
Cousin: Patience Ellesmere
Cousin: Annie Ellesmere

Cousin: Viola Fitzgerald
Cousin: Olivia Fitzgerald
Cousin: Richard Fitzgerald
Cousin: Robert Fiztgerald

History

Christopher Fitzgerald Carlisle: Christopher for his father and Fitzgerald for his mother. There could only be one Christopher in the house at a time and so he quickly became Kit. The nickname has proved hard to shake.

Kit and his younger sister enjoyed a sunny, ordinary childhood until 1792 when it took a tumultuous turn. The siblings were orphaned when Kit was eleven and his baby sister was a delicate one year old. They were immediately whisked south to Hampshire and taken in by their father’s sister, her husband and their well-to-do family of five young children. Kit found the change very hard. He saw his new “family” only over the term breaks and mostly dreaded those long, dragging dull weeks. The little girls failed to interest him in the slightest and cousin Nathaniel’s hero worship soon soured to prickly hostility when it became clear that Kit wanted nothing to do with him either.

Fourteen years on, Little Cousin Nathaniel has grown into an gregarious and impetuous irrepressibly romantic soul… who secretly and scandalously married his mother’s ladies’ maid, Meg Wick – the impoverished daughter of absolutely no one in particular. This little revelation shook the very foundations of the Ellesmere house in 1810.

Now that Cousin Nathaniel has been disinherited and vanished – presumably to the Continent if his cocky parting “Ciao, Papa” was anything to judge by – Kit has been summoned to London to fill his boots. Anthony Ellesmere has built himself somewhat of an impressive fortune and the idea of leaving this world without a suitable heir to it all appalls him. For his part, Kit is yet to decide if this turn of events has been a blessing or a curse.

On one hand, the quantum of money he is set to inherit renders void the need for a career of any sort. On the other, he was actually quite enjoying his career such as it was (medicine, studied at Oxford and then practiced for some time in London before relocating to Bath) and Town isn’t really his scene. He feels somewhat of an imposter, even more so for not having a Lordly title before or after his name – not that he would want one. Not to mention that for the most part London men all seem like complete dandies. They dress too prettily and speak to women as if they were children/pets or, alternatively, as if they were concubines. Accordingly, some London women seem to act one or both of these parts. On the subject of women, he has only lately come to terms with the fact that this new role requires him to reproduce. He is not at all adverse to marrying and having children but finding a wife in London seems to be considered somewhat of a game and Kit does not really enjoy games. Except maybe chess.

Nature

Kit is a straight forward creature in some respects: he is highly logical without a trace of sentimentality nor of superstition. If asked – which he never is – he would define himself as an empiricist and sympathize with Scottish philosopher, Hume: we cannot know with certainty that the sun will continue to rise in the East, but instead come to expect it to do so because it has repeatedly done so in the past.

This approach to has rendered him somewhat of an unpopular dinner guest among the more precious members of society. He will not tolerate fools. He will not tolerate bravado. If you commit to putting a sentence into words, he may well insist you back it up with an appropriate argument. Though not an impolite man, Kit sometimes struggles with the pointless niceties and meaningless small talk polite society requires. The need for such things bemuses him. Also along those lines, he finds modesty somewhat baffling: if one is intelligent/rich/attractive why not embrace it? The same is not true when it comes to flaws – these he will happily not mention. However, he is very hard on himself and subjects others to the same treatment.

Kit is far from shy, but does not crave social contact the way some do. Time alone nourishes this soul as time in the limelight does to some others. Quietly, he has a sincere interest in biology and spends a great deal of time reading any journal available to him. Such bizarre interests do not sit well with his aunt and uncle and, as it is for them that he now returns to Town to play nice and show face at all the right events, this interest is not one he speak much of. His passions run to the study of all natural things and to archery.

He has excellent hand eye co-ordinations (just ask him.)