The Best of the Worlds Classics, Restricted to Prose | Page 7

and hoped I liked the
conversation of so much good company who were as silent as myself. I
knew he alluded to the pictures, and as he is a gentleman who does not
a little value himself upon his ancient descent, I expected he would
give me some account of them. We were now arrived at the upper end
of the gallery, when the knight faced toward one of the pictures, and as
we stood before it, he entered into the matter, after his blunt way of
saying things, as they occur to his imagination, without regular
introduction, or care to preserve the appearance of chain of thought.

"It is," said he, "worth while to consider the force of dress; and how the
persons of one age differ from those of another, merely by that only.
One may observe also, that the general fashion of one age has been
followed by one particular set of people in another, and by them
preserved from one generation to another. Thus the vast jutting coat
and small bonnet, which was the habit in Henry the Seventh's time, is
kept on in the yeomen of the guard; not without a good and politic view,
because they look a foot taller, and a foot and a half broader; besides,
that the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently more terrible,
and fitter to stand at the entrance of palaces.
"This predecessor of ours, you see, is drest after this manner, and his
cheeks would be no larger than mine, were he in a hat as I am. He was
the last man that won a prize in the Tilt-yard (which is now a common
street before Whitehall). You see the broken lance that lies there by his
right foot. He shivered that lance of his adversary all to pieces; and
bearing himself, look you, sir, in this manner, at the same time he came
within the target of the gentleman who rode against him, and taking
him with incredible force before him on the pommel of his saddle, he in
that manner rode the tournament over, with an air that showed he did it
rather to perform the rule of the lists than expose his enemy; however,
it appeared he knew how to make use of a victory, and with a gentle
trot he marched up to a gallery, where their mistress sat (for they were
rivals), and let him down with laudable courtesy and pardonable
insolence. I do not know but it might be exactly where the coffee-house
is now.
"You are to know this my ancestor was not only a military genius, but
fit also for the arts of peace, for he played on the bass viol as well as
any gentleman at court; you see where his viol hangs by his basket-hilt
sword. The action at the Tilt-yard you may be sure won the fair lady,
who was a maid of honor, and the greatest beauty of her time; here she
stands the next picture. You see, sir, my great-great-great-grandmother
has on the new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gathered
at the waist. My grandmother appears as if she stood in a large drum,
whereas, the ladies now walk as if they were in a go-cart. For all this
lady was bred at court, she became an excellent country wife, she

brought ten children, and when I show you the library, you shall see in
her own hand (allowing for the difference of the language) the best
receipt now in English both for a hasty pudding and a white-pot.
"If you please to fall back a little, because it is necessary to look at the
three next pictures at one view; these are three sisters. She on the right
hand, who is so very beautiful, died a maid; the next to her, still
handsomer, had the same fate, against her will; this homely thing in the
middle had both their portions added to her own, and was stolen by a
neighboring gentleman, a man of stratagem and resolution, for he
poisoned three mastiffs to come at her, and knocked down two
deer-stealers in carrying her off. Misfortunes happen in all families.
The theft of this romp, and so much money, was no great matter to our
estate. But the next heir that possess it was this soft gentleman whom
you see there. Observe the small buttons, the little boots, the laces, the
slashes about his clothes, and, above all, the posture he is drawn in
(which, to be sure, was his own choosing), you see he sits with one
hand on a desk writing and looking, as it were, another way, like an
easy writer, or a sonneteer. He was one of those that had too much wit
to know how to live