In England, wood engraving does not seem to have been much practised before the introduction of printing, but there are one or two cuts that may be assigned to an earlier period. Mr. Ottley, in his _Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing_, drew attention to a curious Image of Pity which he had found sewn on the blank leaf at the beginning of a manuscript service-book. This cut, of which he gives a facsimile in his book, is now in the British Museum. Another cut, very similar in design and execution, and probably of about the same date, was found a few years ago in the Bodleian, also inserted at the beginning of a manuscript service-book. In the upper part of the cut is a half-length figure of our Lord, with the hands crossed, standing in front of the cross. On a label at the top of the cross is an inscription, the first part of which is clearly O BACIΛEVC, but the second part is not clear. In the British Museum cut it has been read ‘hora 3ª;’ and though this interpretation is ingenious, and might be made to fit with the Museum copy (which has unfortunately been touched up), the clearer lettering of the Bodleian copy, which has evidently the same inscription, shows that this reading can hardly be accepted. Below the figure we have the text of the indulgence— ‘Seynt gregor’ with othir’ popes & bysshoppes yn feer Have graunted’ of pardon xxvi dayes & xxvi Mill’ yeer’ To theym that befor’ this fygur’ on their’ knees Deuoutly say v pater noster & v Auees.’ Ottley was of opinion that his cut might be of as early a date as the St. Christopher; but that is, of course, a point impossible to determine. From the writing of the indulgence, Bradshaw considered it to belong to the northern part of England; and the subject is differently treated from other specimens of the Image of Pity issued subsequently to the introduction of printing, for in them the various symbols of the Passion are arranged as a border round the central figure. Inserted at the end of a Sarum Book of Hours in the British Museum is a drawing of an Image of Pity, with some prayers below, which resembles in many ways the earlier cuts. The woodcut alphabet, described by Ottley, now in the British Museum, has been considered to be of English production, because on one of the prints is written in very early writing the two words ‘London’ and ‘Bechamsted.’ There seems very little reason beyond this for ascribing these letters to an English workman, though it is worth noticing that they were originally bound up in a small volume, each letter being pasted on a guard formed of fragments of English manuscript of the fifteenth century.