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THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 305
- that of Buchanan ; and I can most vividly figure to
'myself that the original after which the said copy
- was painted, must have heen like that and not other-
- wise ; indeed if I had found the original in a corner
- of one of the galleries, my astonishment would have
- been as small as my pleasure in apprising you of the
- find would have been great. In some of these forty
'portraits the costumes, including the large white
- collar, which has been objected to, are very similar
- to John Knox's ; and in the whole of them there are
- traces in drawing, arrangement of light and shadow,
- conception of character, and all those qualities which
- can never quite be drowned in a reproduction, and
- which are, it seems to me, clearly discerned in this
- copy, done by a free and swift hand, careful only to
- reproduce the likeness and general effect, and heed-
- less of the delicate and . refined touch of the great
' master. — J. E. Boehm.' Prom the well-known and highly estimated Mr. Merritt of the National Gallery, who had not heard of the Picture at all, nor of these multifarious re- searches, but who on being applied to by a common friend (for I have never had the pleasure of person-
