An illustrious feather-pate, gazing with idolatry upon his own modern photograph, has screamed, “Camera beats the brush! Look upon that picture, and then presume to tell me that Rembrandt or Velasquez has fashioned its equal.” Obviously, for those painters never had such a model as illustrious feather-pate. Yet feather-pate but babbles the gibberish of his times. All who inveigh against soulless lithograph or poll-parrot photography, saying that monarchs of the brush are with us still whose works are worthy of the engraver’s steel, cry as prophets of the wilderness. “Camera beats the print,” shrieks Cosmos; “magna est vilitas, et prævalebit.” Thus poor Cinderella, who never went to the ball with her more gorgeous sisters, is driven even from her home in the kitchen. Still, could some god transport Wynne Ryland from the sunny plains, he would find work for his hand as alluring as the canvas of Angelica Kauffman. In the gossamer creations of such as Alma Tadema and Blair Leighton, the soft-coloured print might begin a new life. Is it too late to hope that ere he passed over the dark river he left his mantle upon the shore? BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE RYLAND CASE I. CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES 1. _Authentic Memoires of William Wynne Ryland._ Printed for J. Ryall, No. 17 Lombard Street, 1784. Brit. Mus. As these _Authentic Memoires_ do not present a very lucid account, it is necessary to place the principal events of Wynne Ryland’s career in chronological order:-- Born November 2, 1733, in St John’s Street, Clerkenwell; the third son and fifth child of Edward and Mary Ryland. Baptized December 2, at St Martin’s Church, Ludgate, where his name appears in the register as William Wynn. Studied at St Martin’s Lane Academy--probably during the latter half of the forties. If, as is generally stated, he served an apprenticeship of five years with Ravenet, he must have been bound to that engraver before 1750. The second volume of _Les Fables choisies de la Fontaine_, with illustrations after Oudry, shows that he was in Paris in 1755. Having studied for two years under Le Bas, it would seem that he went to Boucher about 1757. According to most accounts he remained abroad for five years. Probably he was in England in 1761, for several of his red-chalk engravings after the old master were finished during the next year. In April 1762 he published at Lichfield Street, Soho, an engraving of George III., after Ramsay. In February 1763 his engraving of Lord Bute, after Ramsay, was finished. From 1763-67 he was engaged upon the portrait of George III. in his Coronation Robes, after Ramsay. In the spring of 1765 he visited Paris on a commission for the King (_v._ Journal of J. G. Wille). In 1767 he was living in Stafford Row, Pimlico. From 1767-69 he was engaged upon the portrait of the Queen, after Cotes.