In the same case with those interesting, and probably unique specimens of early wood engraving, there is a letter relating to them, dated 27th May, 1819, from Mr. Samuel Lysons to Sir George Beaumont, from which the following is an extract: “I return herewith your curious volume of ancient cuts. I showed it yesterday to Mr. Douce, who agrees with me that it is a great curiosity. He thinks that the blocks were executed at Harlem, and are some of the earliest productions of that place. He has in his possession most of the letters executed in copper, but very inferior to the original cuts. Before you return from the Continent I shall probably be able to ascertain something further respecting them.” What might be Mr. Douce’s reasons for supposing that those cuts were executed at Harlem I cannot tell; though I am inclined to think that he had no better foundation for his opinion than his faith in Junius, Meerman, and other advocates of Lawrence Coster, who unhesitatingly ascribe every early block-book to the spurious “Officina Laurentiana.” In the manuscript catalogue in the Print Room of the British Museum the volume is thus described by Mr. Ottley: “Alphabet of initial letters composed of grotesque figures, wood engravings of the middle of the fifteenth century, apparently the work of a Dutch or Flemish artist; the impressions taken off by friction in the manner of the early block-books. . . . I perceive the word ‘_London_’ in small characters written upon the blade of a sword in one of the cuts, [the letter L,] and I suspect they were engraved in England.” [Illustration]