The receipt also has been printed before; the bill has not:— "Received on board the Union Shipping Company's Smack Sprightly, James Taylor, Master, for London, One Case, marked as per margin (Cadell and Davies, London), which I promise to deliver at Miller's Wharf, all and every the dangers and accidents of the seas and navigation of whatever nature or kind soever excepted. For the Master, - (Signed) "I. RUNNISON." "Edinburgh, 7th January, 1904. "Gentlemen,-Ten days after sight please pay to Mr James Lyon or his order the sum of Twenty one pounds Stg. on my (Signed) " HENRY RAEBURN. acct. 66 To Messrs Cadell & Davies, "Strand, "London. "Accd. "C. & D. "Jany. 11, 1804." Cadell and Davies appear to have been very well satisfied with the portrait if we may judge from Raeburn's letter of acknowledgment, which has never before been printed :— (3) Henry Raeburn to Cadell and Davies. 66 'Edinburgh, 22nd February, 1804. "Gentlemen,-Nothing could be more gratifying to me than the approbation you expressed of the copy I made for you of Robert Burns. "I hope you will be equally pleased with the portrait I now. send you by the orders of Mr Henry Mackenzie. It is shipped on board the Glasgow, Willm. Liburn, master, and I have no doubt you will receive it safe.—I am, respectfully, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, Not till sixteen years later do we again hear of this portrait of Burns painted by Raeburn. Where it hung during that period is matter of conjecture; not unlikely it formed part of the decoration of the publishing establishment at 141 Strand. On April 1, 1820, Cadell and Davies advertised, as "published this day," a new and improved edition of Currie's Works of Robert Burns-the eighth edition they called it, though really it was the ninth, for an eighth had been issued six years previously. This new edition was the revision of Currie's work that Cadell, in 1815, had asked Gilbert Burns to undertake, and that was then ready, after a period of nearly five years. Advertisements in The Morning Chronicle (London) and in Glasgow and Edinburgh newspapers of the month of April, 1820, state that the work is issued "with a new portrait," the portrait itself, in the first of the four volumes of which the work consists, bears to be engraved by W. T. Fry after A. Nasmyth; from which it may be inferred that Raeburn, having but copied the Nasmyth, did not displace that painter's name on the engraved plate. Showing a face with a strong intellectual expression, the portrait as engraved is a decided and a welcome departure from the Beugo of 1787 and the NeagleBeugo of 1800; so decided, indeed, that one is not surprised to find from a later advertisement (in Poetical Works of Robert Burns, vol. 3, published March, 1823) by Thomas Cadell-his partner, William Davies, having died in the interval-that the Gilbert Burns re-issue of Currie's work contains "A Portrait of the Author from an original Picture by Raeburn." Original" picture, however, as Raeburn himself said, it was not; the mistake was probably made by Thomas Cadell, and was a not unlikely one to have occurred at a distance of nearly twenty years. The portrait was not again used by Cadell; but it reappeared, engraved by H. Robinson, in those most beautiful books, the (first and second) Aldine editions of Burns's poetry, printed by the younger Whittingham and published by William Pickering in 1830 and 1839. Where it is now is unknown. The three letters, with the receipt and the bill sent by Raeburn to Cadell and Davies, were formerly in the Burns collec tion of the late Mr William Craibe Angus, of Glasgow. At the sale of his library (December, 1902) they were purchased by Mr William Brown, bookseller, Edinburgh, from whom they passed to Mr Charles Fairfax Murray, of West Kensington, London. The writer has much pleasure in acknowledging Mr Fairfax Murray's kindness in very courteously giving permission to print all five documents. J. C. EWING. REPRODUCTION OF THE THOMSON NASMYTH PORTRAIT. IN N our advertising columns will be found an announcement of the reproduction, in colours, of the Thomson-Nasmyth portrait, which was presented by the original owner, George Thomson, the musical correspondent of Burns, to the National Gallery, London. Of this portrait, the late Alex. S. Mackay, artist, Edinburgh, in an article on the portraiture of Burns, which appeared in Chronicle No. V. (1896), remarks:-"It is said to have been retouched by Raeburn, no doubt at Nasmyth's request. A marked difference here is that the eyes are more fully orbed, and have an upward gaze-the eyebrows being much more elevated, and the hair more extended at the back of the head, for what The flexibility of the • reason it is difficult to determine. mouth, form of chin, and facial angle closely resemble the original." These remarks were occasioned by comparing the portrait in question with the original Nasmyth executed for the Beugo engraving, which appeared in the Edinburgh and London editions of the Poet (1787-1794), and the Auchendrane replica of the same, now the property of Lord Rosebery. The fullness of the hair at the back of the head is also observable in the lastnamed, and this, perhaps, accounts for Mr Mackay's supposition that Raeburn's brush had also been passed over it. But there is not a tittle of evidence on record in support of such a contention. In the last number of the Chronicle (No. XVII, 1908) it was proved beyond a doubt by quotations from the correspondence of George Thomson, (Life of George Thomson: J. Cuthbert Hadden, 1898), that Raeburn did revise and retouch the Thomson replica-not at Nasmyth's request, as Mr Mackay surmises, but on the solicitation of Thomson himself, who expressly states that the retouching was done in his presence. There are variations of the lines of form and expression in the three Nasmyths which differentiate them even in the unskilful eye, and Mr Mackay, who was an eminent portrait-painter himself, has, out of the fulness of his professional knowledge, unerringly pointed out these distinctive variations in the Thomson replica. Raeburn could scarce detract from the work of Nasmyth; on the contrary, there is a concensus of opinion that he improved it, as did Walker and Cousins in their fine engraving of the original in the National Gallery, Edinburgh. Excellent and valuable as the early impressions of that engraving undoubtedly are, we feel constrained to say that the reproduction of the Thomson-Nasmyth, by Messrs Adam & Charles Black, Soho Square, London, now offered to the public on most reasonable terms, is destined to become a formidable rival to it as an artistic and authentic presentment of the Bard. It is, as we have said, a reproduction in colour, so faithful to the original as to confer upon it an altogether exceptional value in comparison with the best handiwork of the line engraver and stippler. Copies in oils of the Edinburgh Nasmyth are plentiful almost as blackberries, and for the least meritorious of them substantial prices are frequently asked. The Messrs Black, by the latest processes of colourphotography, have contrived to produce a likeness of Burns infinitely superior to the best of these and at a tithe of their cost. The size of the plate (16in. by 13žin.) makes an imposing picture, which we can conscientiously recommend on its merits to |