He had pored over
these old volumes so intensely that they seemed to have been
reflected into his countenance; which, if the face be indeed an
index of the mind, might be compared to a title-page of
black-letter.
On reaching the church-porch we found the parson rebuking the
gray-headed sexton for having used mistletoe among the greens
with which the church was decorated. It was, he observed, an
unholy plant, profaned by having been used by the Druids in their
mystic ceremonies; and, though it might be innocently employed in
the festive ornamenting of halls and kitchens, yet it had been
deemed by the Fathers of the Church as unhallowed and totally
unfit for sacred purposes. So tenacious was he on this point that
the poor sexton was obliged to strip down a great part of the
humble trophies of his taste before the parson would consent to
enter upon the service of the day.
The interior of the church was venerable, but simple; on the
walls were several mural monuments of the Bracebridges, and just
beside the altar was a tomb of ancient workmanship, on which lay
the effigy of a warrior in armor with his legs crossed, a sign of
his having been a crusader. I was told it was one of the family
who had signalized himself in the Holy Land, and the same whose
picture hung over the fireplace in the hall.
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