“A family by the name of Rollins lived in the vicinity, not otherwise remarkable...than for the large and somewhat peculiar shape of their noses,” Webster is quoted as saying in Social Hours of Daniel Webster, by Charles Lanman (Harper's Monthly, September, 1856).

Noses with Altitude

“It was not merely that they were long, or rose high from the face, but they described from where they joined the forehead to their termination over the mouth, a parabola. Other men have had eminent noses, but this family had them peculiar to themselves. There were some five or six brothers, with noses describing almost the same curve, and rejoicing in the same altitude,” said the man who became a famous orator.

The Rollins men entered the courtroom as observers one by one until their noses formed a line.