Mischief

I have adapted a passage from a book, changing key nouns and adjectives, and changed it into a different genre. Try to identify the original passage and the book from which I have taken it. It will be at the start of a book, the first paragraph.

"The family of Dirkhelm had been long settled in Normandy. Their castle was large, and their battlements were atop Norland Hill, in the centre of the hill, where for many generations they had lived in so grand a manner as to engage the awe and respect of their surrounding lords. The late owner of this castle was a sturdy man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life had a constant companion and advisor in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his fortress; for to supply her loss, he invited and received into his walls the family of his nephew, Henry Dirkhelm, the legal inheritor of the Norland battlements, and the person to whom he intended to leave the rule. In the society of his nephew and niece, and their children, the old lord's days were comfortably spent. His gift-due to them all increased. The constant advisement of both Dirkwoods according to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from duty, but to ingrained affiliance, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive; and the uprightness of the children added relish to his existence."