CHAPTER XXII BASEL REVISITED Holbein’s return to Basel—Fêted by his fellow-citizens—His prosperous condition—Proposes to repaint his wall-decorations—Offer of a pension of fifty gulden from the Basel Town Council, with permission to remain in England two years longer—Death and will of Sigmund Holbein—Holbein returns to England, probably by way of Paris, in order to apprentice his son Philip to Jacob David, goldsmith—Back in London before Christmas 1538—Receives a special reward for his journey to “High Burgony”—Portraits of Edward, Prince of Wales—Guillim Stretes. SOME nine days after Hoby and Holbein parted company at Nancy the latter was home again in Basel after an absence of six years.[327] The journey across the Vosges mountains would not be a long one. On September 12, 1538, Rudolph Gwalther, then studying in Basel, wrote to the antistes Heinrich Bullinger in Zürich: “Hans Holbein came recently to Basel from England, and he gives such a glowing account of the happy condition of that kingdom, that after a few weeks’ stay he means to go back again.”[328] He received a very hearty welcome from the citizens, who, now that his reputation was much more than a local one, were naturally proud of the fact that he was one of themselves. On September 10 his fellow-burghers gave a banquet in his honour in the Guild-house in the St. Johanns-Vorstadt, the quarter of the city in which Holbein’s own residence was situated. Matthäus Steck, the steward of the Dominican Monastery, notes in his Book of Accounts that he and the schoolmaster, Brother Jacob, with their wives, were present on the occasion, and that they spent eight shillings. Footnote 327: Unless, as suggested above (see p. 63), he had paid an earlier visit to Basel, about 1534-5, of which, however, there is no actual evidence. Footnote 328: “Venit nuper Basileam ex Anglia Johannes Holbein, adeo felicem ejus regni statum praedicans, qui aliquot septimanis exactis rursum eo migraturus est.” This letter, which was first quoted by Hegner (_Hans Holbein der Jüngere_, p. 246), is now among the Zürich State Papers in the Antistical Archives. [Sidenote: PROPOSAL TO REPAINT WALL-PAINTINGS]