Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/249

 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 239 copy from the Beza Figure-head. Of course no pho- tographing was attempted on our part ; but along with it there had been most obligingly sent a copy of the late Mr. Penny of Calder's engraving ; a most meri- torious and exact performance, of which no copy was discoverable in the London shops, though, at Mr. Graves's and elsewhere, were found one or two others of much inferior exactitude to Mr. Penny's engraving : — of this a photograph was taken, which, in the form of woodcut, is on the next page subjoined. This Torphichen Picture is essentially like the Beza woodcut, though there has been a strenuous attempt on the part of the hopelessly incompetent Painter to improve upon it, successful chiefly in the matter of the bunch of carrots, which is rendered almost like a human hand ; for the rest its original at once declares itself, were it only by the loose book held in said hand ; by the form of the nose and the twirl of ruffles under the left cheek ; clearly a bad picture, done in oil, some generations ago, for which the Beza Figure-head served as model, accidentally raised to pictorial sovereignty by the tox ])02mli of Scotland. On the back of the canvas, in clear, strong hand, by all ap-