country family. In a long gallery with a coved ceiling of
arabesques which had once been gilded, hung a series of
paintings representing the past personages of the De Stancy
line. It was a remarkable array--even more so on account of
the incredibly neglected condition of the canvases than for
the artistic peculiarities they exhibited. Many of the frames
were dropping apart at their angles, and some of the canvas
was so dingy that the face of the person depicted was only
distinguishable as the moon through mist. For the colour they
had now they might have been painted during an eclipse; while,
to judge by the webs tying them to the wall, the spiders that
ran up and down their backs were such as to make the fair
originals shudder in their graves.

He wondered how many of the lofty foreheads and smiling lips
of this pictorial pedigree could be credited as true
reflections of their prototypes. Some were wilfully false, no
doubt; many more so by unavoidable accident and want of skill.
Somerset felt that it required a profounder mind than his to
disinter from the lumber of conventionality the lineaments
that really sat in the painter's presence, and to discover
their history behind the curtain of mere tradition.

The painters of this long collection were those who usually
appear in such places; Holbein, Jansen, and Vandyck; Sir
Peter, Sir Geoffrey, Sir Joshua, and Sir Thomas. Their
sitters, too, had mostly been sirs; Sir William, Sir John, or
Sir George De Stancy--some undoubtedly having a nobility
stamped upon them beyond that conferred by their robes and
orders; and others not so fortunate. Their respective ladies