Although Mary Queen of Scots was not directly one of the sovereigns of England, yet she is so intimately connected with them, both by her ancestry, her own history, and her descendants, that the few bindings remaining that belonged to her may well be included among these I am now describing. The bindings that were done for her when she was Dauphiness, or Queen, of France, are, like the Scottish ones, of great rarity. These French bindings are always bound in black, and very often have black edges; and the only two bindings known to me that belonged to her when Queen of Scotland are in such dark calf that it is almost black also. The first and finest of these volumes is a copy of the _Black Acts_, printed at Edinburgh, 1576. It is called _Black Acts_ from the character of the type, and is a collection of the Acts and Constitutions of Scotland in force during the reigns of the Jameses and Mary herself. The outer border on each side of the book is impressed in gold, and consists of a broad arabesque design. Within this border is a representation of the full coat-of-arms of Scotland--a lion rampant, within a tressure flory counter-flory. The tressure should be double, but in this instance it is single. The lion and the tressure are coloured red. Dependent from the shield is the collar and badge of the Order of St. Andrew. A royal helmet, crowned, is placed above the shield, and has a handsome mantling, coloured yellow. On the crown is the crest of Scotland--a crowned lion sejant, holding in one paw a sceptre and in the other a sword. The lion is coloured red. The ancient supporters of Scotland, two white unicorns, are at each side of the shield; each bears a collar shaped like a coronet, with a long chain. Two standards are supported behind the shield; one bears the coat-of-arms of Scotland, and the other St. Andrew's Cross, both being in their proper colours. Across the top of these standards is a white scroll bearing the words "IN DEFENSE," and on similar scrolls just above the heads of the unicorns are the words "MARIA REGINA." There are a few thistles in outline scattered about. The workmanship of this piece of decoration is unlike that on any other book I know. It is what is called all "made up" by a series of impressions from small stamps, curves, and lines, and in places it seems to be done by hand by means of some sort of style drawn along on the leather, the mark being afterwards gilded. The appearance, indeed, is that of a drawing in gold-outline on the leather. The colour, which is freely used, is some sort of enamel, most of which has now chipped off, but enough of it is left to show what it has been originally. The book came to the Museum by gift from George IV. The edges are gauffred, with a little colour upon them.