Old Christmas Recalled - online book

Washington Irving's description of Old Christmas, Illustrated

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	124                      THE CHRISTMAS DINNER prints. There is much antiquarian lore to be acquired ; much knowledge of the physiognomies of former times. Perhaps it may be from having continually before their eyes those rows of old family portraits, with which the mansions of this country are stocked ; certain it is, that the quaint features of antiquity are often most faithfully perpetuated in these ancient lines ; and I have traced an old family nose through a whole picture gallery, legitimately handed down from genera­tion to generation, almost from the time of the Conquest. Something of the kind was to be observed in the worthy com­pany around me. Many of their faces had evidently originated in a Gothic age, and been merely copied by succeeding generations; and there was one little girl, in particular, of staid demean­our, with a high Roman nose,