For three generations at least this _tenet_ in favour of long noses had gradually been taking root in our family. ------TRADITION was all along on its side, and INTEREST was every half-year stepping in to strengthen it; so that the whimsicality of my father's brain was far from having the whole honour of this, as it had of almost all his other strange notions. 
For three generations at least this opinion in favour of long noses had gradually been taking root in our family; so my father's whimsical brain was far from having devised this, as it had almost all his other strange notions. 