But what interested me most in this collection was a sort of grim humour, which had taken the shape of placing on these monuments the names of many distinguished men, and from my knowledge of the artist's character, I readily discerned that the persons thus selected were those from whose opinions he differed. I suppose his eccentricity found a kind of pleasure in thus consigning to the tomb men whom he disliked. Some of the epitaphs served only to display the morbid vanity of the man, as, for instance:-- "SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF FREDERICK, LORD LEIGHTON, P. R. A., WHO WAS SUCCEEDED IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR BY THE EQUALLY EMINENT IF NOT SUPERIOR ARTIST, ANGELO VASARI." A future Walpole in search of "Anecdotes of Painting" must not overlook the following curious incident:-- "IN MEMORIAM, ALMA TADEMA, THE STAR AMONG ARTISTS, WHO DIED WITH GRIEF AT THE ECLIPSE OF HIS NAME BY THE RISING SUN, ANGELO VASARI." "Egad!" said the Baronet, who was looking on with the half-abstracted air that he had displayed since the discovery of George's likeness. "I don't wonder he shut the portfolio up when he came to this exhibition of his vanity. What a conceited fool the fellow is!" Casually turning over the rest of these drawings, we came upon the following singular epitaph, inscribed on a monument crowned with a piece of sculpture representing the Crucifixion: "TO THE MEMORY OF THE SUBLIME GIOTTO, WHO, IN HIS ZEAL FOR ART, SET AT DEFIANCE THOSE FANTASTIC NOTIONS WHICH CASUISTS CALL MORALITY, AND WHOSE EXAMPLE INSPIRED THE GENIUS OF ANGELO VASARI, WITH THE IDEA THAT GAVE BIRTH TO THAT NOBLE MASTERPIECE, 'THE FALL OF CÆSAR.'" "Giotto? Giotto?" repeated the Baronet with a thoughtful air. "He means _the_ Giotto, of course." "Without doubt," responded my uncle. "But what does he mean by the words, 'setting at defiance those fantastic notions which casuists call morality?'" "Can't say, I'm sure," replied Sir Hugh. "I'm not sufficiently versed in Giotto's history to understand the allusion. But perhaps Frank can explain it." "I'm sorry to say I'm exactly in your position," I returned. "Learned gentlemen we are!" laughed the Baronet; and then, after a brief interval of silence, he continued: "I would like to know what this allusion is--for a reason," he added in a grave tone. "It refers undoubtedly to some incident in Giotto's career; if we knew what this incident was, it might furnish us with a clue to the mystery that surrounds the production of Angelo's picture."