There were the little faces of the children, peeping from their bed apart and here the father's frame of strength, the mother's subdued and careful mien, the
high-browed youth, the budding girl, and the good old grandam, still knitting in the warmest place.
China's
high-browed attitude was reflected in a telling 2010 statement by then foreign affairs minister Yang Jiechi.
Just one of many examples in brief from my coffee shop friends is: Within an hour of a very minor cut on my friend's finger he visited the first aid at his local hospital and was attended to by a
high-browed orthopaedic doctor who asked him to clean his wounded finger.
Miz Sherrill is an epic figure at the highest of the
high-browed end of the decorative arts in New York.
"It was geared toward the middle- and
high-browed.''
But is there a false dichotomy between "high fives" and "
high-browed" demeanor?
People may dismiss the Earl as a "snob" who longs for the days when gals had the
high-browed, glaucous-eyed beauty of the Mitford sisters but it is likely that he simply recognises the publicity value of a downright rude soundbite.
And the Daily Post was there with its expert writers to tell you all about it - whether it was ballet to make the eyes leap in their
high-browed sockets, opera to be heard by men and women in dickie-bows and furs; or football at Anfield and Goodison, boxing at the old Stadium, dancing at the Rotunda.
"Later we went to a
high-browed gambling resort, where we remained until morning at the roulette table," he reported.
All of his titles clearly state the obvious, not lending themselves to any
high-browed philosophizing: "Head of a woman with braids" "Woman with two children," "The drunks."
Such is the level of his
high-browed gibberish, he has now been dubbed the new David Brent from The Office.
So much so that, in the
high-browed backlash that has followed, he claims to have quit the game.
Such a misguided methodology leads only to the
high-browed gossip of Rupert Croft-Cooke's Feasting With Panthers.