Family portraits. The member of the Council, by Smibert. The great
merchant-uncle, by Copley, full length, sitting in his arm-chair, in a
velvet cap and flowered robe, with a globe by him, to show the range of
his commercial transactions, and letters with large red seals lying
round, one directed conspicuously to The Honourable etc. etc.
Great-grandmother, by the same artist; brown satin, lace very fine, hands
superlative; grand old lady, stiffish, but imposing. Her mother, artist
unknown; flat, angular, hanging sleeves; parrot on fist. A pair of
Stuarts, viz., 1. A superb full-blown, mediaeval gentleman, with a fiery
dash of Tory blood in his veins, tempered down with that of a fine old
rebel grandmother, and warmed up with the best of old India Madeira; his
face is one flame of ruddy sunshine; his ruffled shirt rushes out of his
bosom with an impetuous generosity, as if it would drag his heart after
it; and his smile is good for twenty thousand dollars to the Hospital,
besides ample bequests to all relatives and dependants. 2. Lady of the
same; remarkable cap; high waist, as in time of Empire; bust _à la
Josephine_; wisps of curls, like celery-tips, at sides of forehead;
complexion clear and warm, like rose-cordial. As for the miniatures by
Malbone, we don’t count them in the gallery.
Books, too, with the names of old college-students in them,—family
names;—you will find them at the head of their respective classes in the
days when students took rank on the catalogue from their parents’
condition. Elzevirs, with the Latinized appellations of youthful
progenitors, and _Hic liber est meus_ on the title-page. A set of
Hogarth’s original plates. Pope, original edition, 15 volumes, London,
1717. Barrow on the lower shelves, in folio. Tillotson on the upper, in
a little dark platoon of octo-decimos.
Some family silver; a string of wedding and funeral rings; the arms of
the family curiously blazoned; the same in worsted, by a maiden aunt.
If the man of family has an old place to keep these things in, furnished
with claw-footed chairs and black mahogany tables, and tall bevel-edged
mirrors, and stately upright cabinets, his outfit is complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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