CHAPTER XVII 
GOOD FAMILIES 
AVING now, with all the airs of the 
literary showman, thrown upon the 
screen these little pictures of our American 
estate, I may perhaps be allowed to dwell upon 
the qualities of a few at least of the good 
families of plants whose ancestral manor it is, 
and who have so long lent it the charm of 
their presence. There are many of these 
excellent families, with unbroken line of 
descent, and not a blot upon the escutcheon 
nor anywhere a symptom of degeneracy. 
With many branches and numerous de- 
scendants they are tribal and clannish in the 
way they reveal family traits and adhere to 
family traditions. Between one clan and 
another there are all shades of difference, but 
they have this in common, that they are good 
neighbours, they wear well, and they seem in 
their rooted silent existence to lend them- 
selves with a gentle sympathy to the com- 
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