FAMILY PICTURE. 



299 



church : but there was nothing uncommon in this. 

 The mistress of the house was a lively, conversi- 

 ble, handsome person ; very hospitable and kind, 

 especially to the strangers ; and she often made 

 up little parties in the evening, where the company 

 sat in the street before her door till a late hour ; 

 smoking, chatting, and flapping away the mosqui- 

 toes, and watching, anxiously, for the first puff 

 of the land-wind. The master of the house, who 

 was in office, had it sometimes in his power to be 

 useful to us. In this way I became intimate with 

 the family, and although there be very little to 

 describe abou.t them, I insensibly felt interested 

 in the whole party, and saw them go away this 

 morning with considerable regret. 



The ladies were in their riding dresses, which 

 consisted of a yellow-coloured beaver hat, with a 

 brim so broad as to serve the purpose of an um- 

 brella; but with a disproporti enable low crown, two 

 inches and a half high ; tied round with a richly 

 wrought ribband, between which and the hat was 

 stuck a tri-coloured cockade, the emblem of the 

 guarantees mentioned in the account of the Re- 

 volution. The hat served to confine a handker- 

 chief, doubled corner-wise, and placed previously 



