BEAUTY IN THE COUNTRY. 193 



while preserving its good proportion. The hard 

 chin becomes rounded and not too prominent, the 

 cheek-bones sink, the ears are smaller, a softness 

 spreads itself over the whole face. That which was 

 only honest now grows tender. Again another gene- 

 ration, and it is a settled axiom that the family are 

 handsome. The country-side as it gossips agrees 

 that the family are marked out as good-looking. 

 Like seeks like, as we know ; the handsome inter- 

 marry with the handsome. Still, the beauty has not 

 arrived yet, nor is it possible to tell whether she 

 will appear from the female or male branches. But 

 in the fifth generation appear she does, with the 

 original features so moulded and softened by time, 

 so worked and refined and sweetened, so delicate 

 and yet so rich in blood, that she seems like a new 

 creation that has suddenly started into being. No 

 one has watched and recorded the slow process which 

 has thus finally resulted. No one could do so, 

 because it has spread over a century and a half. 

 If any one will consider, they will agree that the 

 sentiment at the sight of a perfect beauty is as 

 much amazement as admiration. It is so astound- 

 ing, so outside ordinary experience, that it wears the 

 aspect of magic. 



A stationary home preserves the family intact, so 

 that the influences already described have time to 

 produce their effect. There is nothing uncommon 

 in a yeoman's family continuing a hundred and 

 fifty years in the same homestead. Instances are 

 known of such occupation extending for over two 

 hundred years ; cases of three hundred years may be 



