We have said that the earliest English book-plate yet come to light is Cardinal Wolsey's. This is not a printed book-plate at all, but a carefully drawn sketch of the Cardinal's arms, with supporters, and surmounted by a Cardinal's hat, the whole coloured by hand. How many of these book-plates the Cardinal possessed, we do not know; but that this--the only example known--is undoubtedly a book-plate, is proved from the fact that it may now be seen in a folio volume which once belonged to Wolsey, and subsequently to his royal master. It bears no date, and may have been designed any time after the minister's elevation to the cardinalate in September 1514. It is a splendid affair in every way, and gorgeously coloured. The shield of arms rests on a platform (gold), the front of which is red, ornamented with an arabesque pattern, also red; pillars on the platform support a canopy, ornamented as the front of the platform, with the addition of Tudor roses; over the shield is the Cardinal's hat, and above that again the holy dove descends. The shield is supported by two dingy-looking griffins, whose wings and heads are red, and whose beaks, claws, and tail-tips are gold; the background is blue. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF SIR NICHOLAS BACON.] Next in date, after Wolsey's book-plate, comes that which was, I believe, engraved at least contemporaneously with the date upon it, 1574, to place in the volumes given in that year by Sir Nicholas Bacon to the University of Cambridge. Bacon died five years after this date; he is familiar to us all as 'the father of his country and of Sir Francis Bacon.' This book-plate is engraved on wood; like Wolsey's, it is found coloured, but it is also--amongst the odds and ends in the Bagford Collection--found uncoloured, and without the inscription which records the gift to Cambridge. A facsimile of that in the Bagford Collection appears opposite: can it be the book-plate of Bacon himself, to which, on the copies used for the books that he gave to Cambridge, was added the donatory inscription? A close comparison shows that both shields of arms are struck from the same block. The arms shown are Bacon quartering Quaplode. The variety of this book-plate which bears the inscription belongs to what are termed 'gift' or 'legacy' book-plates, the dates on which--as they refer to the date of the 'gift' or 'legacy' commemorated--are considered _earlier_ than the engraving. In the case of 'legacy' book-plates they may often be so, but they are not, I think, in many cases of 'gift' book-plates. For instance, if (as from the Bagford example seems probable) this was Bacon's own book-plate, the date upon it, 1574, may even be many years _later_ than the time at which it was made for him. That the date on one of these 'gift' book-plates must be, within a very short space of time, the date of its engraving, will be shown presently when I come to speak of that recording a donation made by Lady Bath. [Illustration]