Meanwhile--for the “Memorials of the Antient and Knightly Family of Manwaring of Holmcastle Manor, in the County Palatine of Lancaster,” was in progress for years and years, and indeed was scarcely half finished at the author’s death--the Squire’s three children grew up apace. Though he had little or no fatherly sympathy with them, and probably looked on them rather as necessary evils, than as God-sent gifts entrusted to him to be loved and cherished above all other possessions, he was not what would be commonly called a bad father. The children were not grudged meat or drink, or dress, or even luxuries becoming their station--the “Honour of the Family” demanded that,--but it is certain that, as they grew up, the Squire valued them chiefly as possible producers of more heirs male, or on account of their real or supposed likeness to their ancestors. Thus Lionel, the first-born, was supposed to resemble Sir Ralph Manwaring, Governor of Calais under Henry VII., of whom a fine portrait, by the elder Holbein, hung over the mantelpiece in the dining-room; Evelyn was credited with a likeness to Mistress Blanche Manwaring, who was kissed by his Sacred Majesty, King Charles II., on the occasion of his visit to Holmcastle, and who rewarded that merry monarch with a sound slap on the royal chops; while Wilfred, who was a beautiful boy, with dark violet eyes, clustering dark hair, and nobly-cut forehead, and in whose form grace and strength were combined, as in that of a Ganymede cut by a Greek chisel, was esteemed the living image of Sir Godfrey, who had been deemed a great beauty at Court, and who had lost so many broad pieces to his royal master in the great gallery at Whitehall, that he was forced to sell many of the fair acres which the roundheads had left to the family, when they spoiled gallant old Sir Walter for his attachment to King Charles the First. It had been the custom of the Family to educate the children well, and in accordance with that precedent, no expense was spared by Mr. Manwaring in the education of his daughter and his two sons. Lionel went to Eton, where most of his ancestors, for three hundred years, had been before him; and thence, after a brilliant career at the Academy at Woolwich, he passed into the army, and speedily gained a reputation as a young officer of the highest promise.