Smile please

This frightening rug is a prop in the studio in the E. Chambre Hardman house managed by the National Trust. It has recently reopened for the season so I rang up on the spur of the moment to book a guided tour, anticipating a rush. As it happens there were only 5 others there; a family with two unnaturally polite and well-behaved young boys who feigned interest in the uninspiring domestic contents, and a strange rude man who did not, wandering off and grimacing horribly during an admittedly tedious address by one of the volunteers on site. I confess to stifling a snort of mirth when said earnest National Trust person showed us the rooms where light retouching and mounting were performed...