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306 THE PORTEAITS OF JOHN KNOX. ally knowing Mr. Merritt) kindly consented to go to' the South Kensington Museum, and examine the Picture, — I receive, naturally with pleasure and surprise, the following report :
- 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, W.
' 9 January 1875. 'After a careful inspection of the Portrait, I am
- hound to say that the signs of age are ahsent from
- the surface, and I should therefore conjecture that it
- is a copy of a portrait of the time of Francis Pourbus,
- to whom we are indebted for the portrait of George
- Buchanan, which I believe is in the possession of the
' Royal Society.
- My opinion is in favour of the Somerville Portrait
- being of Knox. Strongly marked features like those
- were not likely to be confounded with any other
- man's. The world has a way of handing down the
- lineaments of great men. Eecords and tradition, as
- experience has shown me, do their work in this re-
- spect very effectively. — Henry Merritt.*
This is all the evidence we have to offer on the Somerville Portrait. The preliminary objection in re-
