Among the first students of the art was Prince Rupert, who was an excellent artist and an accomplished workman all round. He engraved a large plate after Spagnoletto, called “The Great Executioner,” and when John Evelyn wrote a little book called “Sculptura,” which was published in 1662, and included in it a short description of the new art, the Prince mezzotinted a plate for him, showing only the head of the great executioner. This head, the first mezzotint done for a book, is a finer piece of work than the head in the larger plate. There were several anatomical plates, mostly printed in coloured inks, which were mezzotinted about the same time, but they are not important; then Faber’s portraits of founders of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge were used as illustrations to Rolt’s “Lives of the Reformers,” published in 1759. These plates bear Houston’s name as mezzotinter, but this is only one of a number of such re-letterings which occur in the history of mezzotints. Robert Dunkarton engraved several book illustrations, mostly portraits, and he also helped in the mezzotinting of some of the plates in Turner’s “Liber Studiorum.” He was a portrait painter, and his mezzotints are better than Faber’s. John Young was an eminent mezzotinter, and in 1815 he issued a large book of portraits of the Emperors of Turkey printed in colours. They are not particularly good, but are interesting as being the first set of mezzotints to be issued in colour as book illustrations. The book is rare and, if the colour is strong, of considerable value. Turner’s “Liber Studiorum” was issued between 1807 and 1819, and many mezzotinters helped in the work--F. C. Lewis, Charles Turner, W. Say, R. Dunkarton, G. Clint, J. C. Eastling, T. Hodgetts, W. Annis, H. Dawe, T. Lipton, and S. W. Reynolds. The plates were not pure mezzotint, but were strongly etched as well with some aquatinting; the first etching was done by J. M. W. Turner, and some of the mezzotinting. I think he probably worked finally upon all the plates in various ways with burin, scraper and roulette. Several books of landscapes are illustrated with mezzotints, done on copper or steel, by T. G. Lupton, many of them after Turner, and John Constable’s landscapes have been admirably mezzotinted by David Lucas; perhaps the best known is “English Landscape Scenery,” published in 1855. In all mezzotints, large or small, it should be noted that the _condition_ of the print is important. The blacks should be deep and velvety; if they show greyish or spotted, the print is from an old plate. Mezzotints on steel last better than if they are on copper. I know of no foreign books illustrated with mezzotints. There are several ways of making aquatints, but the best is the oldest. It was invented by a Frenchman, J. B. Le Prince, towards the end of the eighteenth century, and although of foreign origin, the art has been most extensively and successfully practised in England.