Shallow. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword
should end it!"
Near the window thus emblazoned hung a portrait by Sir Peter Lely,
of one of the Lucy family, a great beauty of the time of Charles the
Second: the old housekeeper shook her head as she pointed to the
picture, and informed me that this lady had been sadly addicted to
cards, and had gambled away a great portion of the family estate,
among which was that part of the park where Shakspeare and his
comrades had killed the deer. The lands thus lost had not been
entirely regained by the family even at the present day. It is but
justice to this recreant dame to confess that she had a surpassingly
fine hand and arm.
The picture which most attracted my attention was a great painting
over the fireplace, containing likenesses of Sir Thomas Lucy and his
family, who inhabited the hall in the latter part of Shakspeare's
lifetime. I at first thought that it was the vindictive knight
himself, but the housekeeper assured me that it was his son; the
only likeness extant of the former being an effigy upon his tomb in
the church of the neighboring hamlet of Charlecot.* The picture
gives a lively idea of the costume and manners of the time.
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