_Portrait (Unknown)._--A very carefully painted portrait, on an oak
panel, has been in the possession of my family for many years, and I
should be much pleased if any of your correspondents could enable me to
identify the personage.
The figure, which is little more than a head, is nearly the size of
life, and represents an elderly man with grey hair and a long venerable
beard: the dress, which is but little shown, is black. At the upper part
of the panel, on the dexter side, is a shield, bearing these
arms:--Argent on a fess sable between three crosses patées, Or, as many
martlets of the last. Above the shield is written "In cruce glorior." I
have searched in vain for those arms. On the prints published by the
Society of Antiquaries, of the funeral of Abbot Islip, is one nearly
similar,--the field ermine on a fess between three crosses patées, as
many martlets. The colours are not shown by the engraver. A manuscript
ordinary, by Glover, in my possession, contains another, which is
somewhat like that on the picture, being--Argent on a fess engrailed
sable, bearing three crosses patées, Gules, as many martlets on the
field. This is there ascribed to "Canon George." It is very probable
that the gold crosses on the white field was an error of the portrait
painter.
The size of the oak panel, which is thick, is seventeen inches wide, and
twenty-two in height. The motto is in a cursive hand, apparently of
about the time of Edward VI.