False colours last after the true be dead.
Of all the roses grafted on her cheeks,
Of all the graces dancing in her eyes,
Of all the music set upon her tongue,
Of all that was past woman's excellence
In her white bosom; look, a painted board
Circumscribes all!

--DEKKER.


An old English family mansion is a fertile subject for study. It
abounds with illustrations of former times, and traces of the tastes,
and humours, and manners of successive generations. The alterations
and additions, in different styles of architecture; the furniture,
plate, pictures, hangings; the warlike and sporting implements of
different ages and fancies; all furnish food for curious and amusing
speculation. As the Squire is very careful in collecting and
preserving all family reliques, the Hall is full of remembrances of
the kind. In looking about the establishment, I can picture to myself
the characters and habits that have prevailed at different eras of the
family history. I have mentioned, on a former occasion, the armour of
the crusader which hangs up in the Hall. There are also several
jack-boots, with enormously thick soles and high heels, that belonged
to a set of cavaliers, who filled the Hall with the din and stir of
arms during the time of the Covenanters. A number of enormous drinking
vessels of antique fashion, with huge Venice glasses, and
green-hock-glasses, with the apostles in relief on them, remain as
monuments of a generation or two of hard livers, that led a life of
roaring revelry, and first introduced the gout into the family.