196 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



Among the family portraits one was shown having a title that 

 sounded familiarly to us, and, after a moment's thought, we both 

 remembered it to be that of the single nobleman, whom an anti- 

 quarian friend had informed us that our family had been, long 

 before its emigration, connected with by marriage. If it had 

 been a Scotch castle, we might perhaps have felt ourselves more 

 at home in consequence. It was an odd coincidence, and made 

 us realize the relationship of our democracy, even to aristocratic 

 England, quite vividly. 



In consideration of this, I think I may say a few words of the 

 private apartments of the family, through nearly all which, appa- 

 rently, we were shown. They were comparatively small, not 

 larger or more numerous, and certainly not as expensively furn- 

 ished as those of many of our New York merchants ; but some 

 of them were delightful, and would be most tempting of covet- 

 ousness to a man of domestic tastes, or to a lover of art or of lit- 

 erary ease. Generally, there was exquisite taste evident in colors 

 and arrangements, and forms of furniture, and there were proofs 

 of high artistic skill in some members of the family, as well as a 

 general love and appreciation of the beautiful and the excellent. 

 Some of the rooms were painted in very high colors, deep blue 

 and scarlet and gold, and in bizarre figures and lines. I hardly 

 could tell how it would please me if I were accustomed to it, but 

 I did not much admire it at first sight, and it did not seem Eng- 

 lish or home-like. It is just the thing for New York though, and 

 I have no doubt you'll soon see the fashion introduced there, and 

 dining-rooms, dressing-rooms, counting-rooms, and steamboat 

 state-rooms, all equally flaring. 



The bed-chambers and dressing-rooms were so furnished as to 

 look exceedingly cosy and comfortable, but there was nothing 

 very remarkable about them except, perhaps, the great prepara- 

 tion made for washing the person. I confess, if I had been 



