The portrait of the wife of John Clerk, Mary, daughter of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, is also a copy, and of this a delicate and spirited contemporary miniature is preserved at Penicuik. It was executed about the end of the last century by Miss Ann Forbes, a grand-daughter of William Aikman’s, and consequently a connection of the Clerks, whose work, chiefly in crayons, though this is an oil picture, is to be found in many Scottish houses, as, for instance, at The Ross, Hamilton, the seat of the present head of Aikman’s family. A few other examples of her brush are preserved in the present collection; and her own portrait, painted by David Allan, a carefully handled cabinet picture, very clear and silvery in tone, showing her standing in three-quarters length, holding a portcrayon and a portfolio, is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The portrait of Mrs. Mary Clerk, like that of her husband, shows the figure to the waist; the face is in three-quarters to the right. She has light hazel eyes, neutral brown eyebrows and hair, the latter elaborately curled, fastened with bows of black ribbon, and decorated in front with a small plume of white ostrich feathers, and she wears pearl ear-rings and a double string of large pearls round the neck. The costume is a black flowered dress, worn low at the breast, with a tall white lace collar standing up behind the neck. V. We come now to examine the portraits of Sir John Clerk, the first Baronet of Penicuik, who was born in 1649; served repeatedly in Parliament, after the Revolution of 1688, as member for the county of Edinburgh; was Lieutenant-Colonel of a regiment commanded by the Earl of Lauderdale; was created a Baronet by Charles II. in 1679; acquired the lands of Lasswade in 1700; and died in 1722. He is described by his son as “one of the strongest men of his time, but not full in stature, being scarce 5 feet 6 inches,” “finely made, had proportionate breadth, and a Hercules shoulders,” “a man of knowledge and application,” “a pretty good scholar, and exceedingly knowing in Divinity.”