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 Abbé 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 the
bottom of the portrait, and over the original finished painting, and
therefore of a subsequent date:

"David Betonius, S.R.E., Card. Archiep. S. Andreæ in Scotia, ab
Hostibus Fidei Barbare Trucidatus."

Beaton was elected to the Cardinalate in Dec. 1538; did he visit Rome after
that? He was at all events in Paris. The Scotch College at Rome was a
natural habitat for a portrait of a Scottish churchman so famous as
Cardinal Beaton, and it would be strange indeed if they had not one of him
where they affected a collecion of portraits of British prelates. I propose
to have this portrait engraved, if its probable authenticity cannot be
shaken. Did Pinkerton engrave any portrait of Beaton? There is none in my