of the family portraits had been consigned
to the room tenanted by Kenelm, which, though both the oldest and
largest bed-chamber in the house, was always appropriated to a bachelor
male guest, partly because it was without dressing-room, remote, and
only approached by the small back-staircase, to the landing-place of
which Arabella had been banished in disgrace; and partly because it had
the reputation of being haunted, and ladies are more alarmed by that
superstition than men are supposed to be. The portraits on which Kenelm
now paused to gaze were of various dates, from the reign of Elizabeth to
that of George III., none of them by eminent artists, and none of them
the effigies of ancestors who had left names in history,--in short, such
portraits as are often seen in the country houses of well-born squires.
One family type of features or expression pervaded most of these
portraits; features clear-cut and hardy, expression open and honest.
And though not one of those dead men had been famous, each of them had
contributed his unostentatious share, in his own simple way, to the
movements of his time. That worthy in ruff and corselet had manned his
own ship at his own cost against the Armada; never had been repaid by
the thrifty Burleigh the expenses which had harassed him and diminished
his patrimony; never had been even knighted. That gentleman with short
straight hair, which overhung his forehead, leaning on his sword
with one hand, and a book open in the other hand, had served as
representative of his county town in the Long Parliament, fought under
Cromwell at Marston Moor, and, resisting the Protector when he removed
the "bauble," was one of the patriots incarcerated in "Hell hole." He,
too, had diminished his patrimony, maintaining two troopers and two
horses at his own charge, and "Hell hole" was all he got in return.
A third, with a sleeker expression of countenance, and a large wig,
flourishing in the quiet times of Charles II., had only been a justice
of the peace, but his alert look showed that he had been a very active
one. He had neither increased nor diminished his ancestral fortune. A
fourth, in the costume of William III.'s reign, had somewhat added to
the patrimony by becoming a lawyer. He must have been a successful one.
He is inscribed "Sergeant-at-law." A fifth, a lieutenant in the army,
was killed at Blenheim; his portrait was that of a very young and
handsome man, taken the year before his death. His