Of Italian origin, the head is attributed by some to Raphael, by others to Leonard de Vinci. The possibility of its being antique is no longer admitted. According to Gonse, it came from the Tuscan studio of Orsino Benitendi, and dates from about 1480. The wax was tinted at a later date. Leaning to one side, the face is pensive in expression. The neck is flexible and sits with easy grace on the shoulders. The cheeks are rather broad and somewhat flat, the chin round and short. A faint smile hovers round the delicate mouth. The eyes are considered by some to be rather small. The waving hair is divided into two graceful masses, which are rolled up on the back of the neck. The expression of the face is enigmatical and changes with the angle from which it is regarded. Psychologists and artists alike will long discuss its charms. When the two German experts _Herr Demmler_ and _Herr Professor Klemen_ "requisitioned" the collections of the Museum _(p. 39)_, what they took away was a _copy_ of this head, the original having been hidden in one of the underground vaults. It narrowly escaped destruction in October, 1918, when the Germans, previous to evacuating the town, cut the water-mains, so that the sub-basement of the Museum was flooded. Fortunately, the water did not rise high enough to do serious damage, and the head was eventually restored intact to its velvet pedestal. _Near the Museum, at the corner of the Rue Jeanne Maillotte and the Rue Denis Godefroy which opens on the Boulevard de la Liberté, in line with the Museum_, is the house where M. Eugène =Jacquet= lived _(his apartment was on the 1st floor, see photograph below and page 16)_. _Leave the Place de la République by the Rue Nicolas Leblanc (at the corner of the Square, by the side of the Museum) at the end of which is the =Church of St. Michael=. Continue as far as the Place Philippe le Bon: in the middle, =Monument to Pasteur=; on the left, =University of Lille=._ The =University of Lille= occupies spacious buildings inaugurated in 1895. An important library and various wings have since been added, including the Coal and the Gosselet Geological and Mineralogical Museums, the Electro-Technical and Pasteur Institutes, etc. The University of Lille is the second in importance in France. [Illustration: M. JACQUET'S HOUSE] _On the left, at the end of the Place Philippe le Bon, take the Rue Solférino which crosses the Place Jeanne d'Arc and leads to the Rue de Douai._ [Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY] _From the Place Philippe le Bon, the tourist may visit the =curious Monument=_ built by the Germans in the Southern Cemetery, where several thousands of their soldiers were buried. The monument represents a Walkyrie carrying off a dead warrior to the Walhalla _(p. 64)_.