We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy,
the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace, and
twanging his instrument with a vast deal more power than melody. Never
did Christmas board display a more goodly and gracious assemblage of
countenances; those who were not handsome were, at least, happy; and
happiness is a rare improver of your hard-favoured visage.

I always consider an old English family as well worth studying as a
collection of Holbein's portraits or Albert Durer's prints. There
is much antiquarian lore to be acquired; much knowledge of the
physiognomies of former times. Perhaps it may be from having continually
before their eyes those rows of old family portraits, with which the
mansions of this country are stocked; certain it is, that the quaint
features of antiquity are often most faithfully perpetuated in these
ancient lines; and I have traced an old family nose through a whole
picture-gallery, legitimately handed down from generation to generation,
almost from the time of the Conquest. Something of the kind was to
be observed in the worthy company around me. Many of their faces
had evidently originated in a Gothic age, and been merely copied by
succeeding generations; and there was one little girl, in particular, of
staid demeanour, with a high Roman nose, and an antique vinegar
aspect, who was a great favourite of the Squire's, being, as he said, a
Bracebridge all over, and the very counterpart of one of his ancestors
who figured in the court of Henry VIII.

The parson said grace, which was not a short, familiar one, such as
is commonly addressed to the Deity, in these unceremonious days; but a
long, courtly, well-worded one of the ancient school.

There was now a pause, as if something was expected; when suddenly the