, attended
me on my first visit. He saw me looking at this head with great eagerness.
"Enfin voila quelque chose qui merite bien votre attention"--observed he.
It was in fact the portrait of "their good but unfortunate KING JOHN"--as
my guide designated him. This Drawing is executed in a sort of thick body
colour, upon fine linen: the back-ground is gold: now almost entirely
tarnished--and there is a sort of frame, stamped, or pricked out, upon the
surface of the gold--as we see in the illuminations of books of that
period. It should also seem as if the first layer, upon which the gold is
placed, had been composed of the white of an egg--or of some such glutinous
substance. Upon the whole, it is an exceedingly curious and interesting
relic of antient graphic art.

To examine minutely the treasures of such a collection of prints--whether
in regard to ancient or modern art--would demand the unremitted attention
of the better part of a month; and in consequence, a proportionate quantity
of time and paper in embodying the fruits of that attention.[24] There is
only one other curiosity, just now, to which I shall call your attention.
It is the old wood cut of ST. CHRISTOPHER--of which certain authors have
discoursed largely.[25] They suppose they have an impression of it here--
whereas that of Lord Spencer has been hitherto considered as unique. His
Lordship's copy, as you well know, was obtained from the Buxheim monastery,
and was first made public in the interesting work of Heineken.[26] The copy
now under consideration is not pasted upon boards, as is Lord Spencer's--
forming the interior linings in the cover or binding of an old MS.--but it
is a loose leaf, and is therefore subject to the most minute examination,
or to any conclusion respecting the date which may be drawn from the
_watermark_. Upon _such_ a foundation I will never attempt to build an
hypothesis, or to draw a conclusion; because the same water-mark of Bamberg
and of Mentz, of Venice and of Rome, may be found within books printed both
at the commencement and at the end of the fifteenth century. But for the
print--as it _is_. I have not only examined it carefully, but have
procured, from M. Coeure, a fac-simile of the head only--the most essential
part--and both the examination and the fac-simile convince me... that the
St. Christopher in the Bibliotheque du Roi is NOT an impression from the
_same block_ which furnished the St. Christopher now in the library