induce you do it."--Pinkerton's _Correspondence_, vol. i. p. 402. 8vo.
Lond. 1830.

Pinkerton made inquiry, and on Dec. 1st, 1797, writes to the Earl of
Buchan:

"Mr. Pennant informs me the Cardinal Beaton is false. It is, indeed,
too modern. A real Beaton is said to exist in Fife."--Pinkerton's
_Correspondence_, vol. ii. p. 17.

Lord Buchan writes to him that Mr. Beaton, of Balfour, believes himself to
have a genuine portrait of the Cardinal, and offers it for engraving. 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