aving. The
authenticity of this portrait, however, appears not to have been
established, and it was not engraved. Another was found at Yester, and was
at first concluded to be a genuine original: but Lady Ancram soon
discovered that it possessed no marks of originality, but might be a good
copy: it was, however, certainly _not_ one of the six cardinals purchased
by the third Earl of Lothian. Finally, it was rejected altogether. A copy
of a portrait from the Vatican was also rejected as undoubtedly spurious.
It appears, therefore, that Pinkerton, in this case at least, exercised
caution in the selection of his subject for engraving, so far as concerned
authenticity. His criticism, that the Holyrood House portrait is "too
modern," will be agreed in by all who will take the trouble to compare the
portrait in Lodge with undoubted portraits of the time: the style is too
modern by a hundred years. But the portrait is of a man upwards of sixty
years old: Beaton was murdered in 1546, in the fiftieth year of his age.
The portrait is of a dark haired man without beard.

I now come to a portrait of Beaton which there appears reason to think is
genuine, and I beg the favour of your correspondents to give me any
information in their power regarding it. This portrait is in the Roman
Catholic College at Blairs, near Aberdeen. It was in the Scotch College at
Rome down to the period of the French occupation of that city in 1798, and
formed part of the plunder {434} from that college. It was subsequently
discovered in a sale-room by the late Abbe Macpherson, rector of the same
college, who purchased it and sent it to Blairs, where it has been for,
now, a good many years. That it is a portrait of Beaton's time is certain;
but the artist is unknown, and the picture has sustained damage. It is
attributed, by a competent judge, who has himself painted two careful
copies of it, to Titian, not only from its general style and handling, but
from certain peculiarities of canvas, &c., on which latter circumstances,
however, he does not lay much stress, taking them only as adminicles in
proof. The portrait is a half-length, about 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft.: it is
that of a fresh-coloured, intellectual man, of forty-five or upwards; hazel
eyes; hair slightly reddish, or auburn, just becoming tinged with grey; a
thin small beard; costume similar to that of Holbein's Cardinal Wolsey, in
the hall of Christchurch, Oxford. It bears this inscription, painted at t